


Duty Bound

by indiefic



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space Opera, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Forced Marriage, Steggy baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-08 09:08:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 46,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8838721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indiefic/pseuds/indiefic
Summary: Steve Rogers is the Empire's poster boy.  The perfect soldier.  When the Empire conquers Peggy Carter's world, she and Steve Rogers are forced into a marriage that neither of them wants.  Can they fake it long enough for Peggy to avenge those she lost?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> BECAUSE WHY NOT. Loosely inspired by many dystopian sources: 1984, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Equilibrium.

Fury tossed the folders down onto the table, one in front of Steve, and the other in front of Bucky.  Immediately, Bucky picked his up and started rifling through it.  His eyebrows shot up and he glanced over the top of the folder at Fury.  “No shit?”

Fury’s frown deepened.  “No shit.  On Pierce’s orders.”

Bucky whistled and sat down at the table, propping his boots on the top as he leafed through the pages again at a more leisurely pace.

With a sense of dread, Steve finally picked up his folder and looked at it.  The first page was clear enough.  A marriage certificate.  Conscripted pairing.  His teeth ground together as he looked at Fury.

Fury just shrugged.

Frowning, Steve leafed through the pages.  He snorted, shocked that he was shocked.  Sorros.  He should have known.  He read through his intended mate’s dossier, mostly to give himself something to do as he tried to form a reaction.  He’d never met her, but he already knew her dossier backwards and forwards.  

There was absolutely no question that this pairing was a punitive move from Pierce.  

The Empire, and Pierce, won the war with Sorros.  But the losses incurred were massive.  A pyrrhic victory, a black mark on Pierce’s illustrious record.  Any benefit was far offset by what the victory had cost the Empire, both monetarily and in terms of manpower.  

Steve warned Pierce it was a bad play.  He’d advised him not to take Sorros.  When Pierce didn’t listen, Steve flatly refused to be part of the invasion.  

Pierce was the Vizier, the undisputed leader of the Empire’s military wing.  He could have forced Steve to lead the Siege of Sorros, but he didn’t.  Obviously, he’d spent some time devising his revenge.  

Shaking his head, Steve glanced at the dossier.  Peggy Carter.  Steve already knew her history.  He researched her extensively when Obadiah Stane, Emperor Stark’s second in command, initially asked for an assessment of Sorros.  Carter was good.  Damn good.  Her people followed her without question.  She had a fantastic military mind and she nearly managed to beat back the Empire despite being outmanned ten to one.  

Steve never would have tangled with Peggy Carter on a battlefield.  And now he was staring at a marriage certificate bearing both their names.  “She should have been executed,” he said carefully, looking up at Fury.

“You’re not wrong,” Fury admitted.

“And instead, I’m supposed to marry her.”

Fury nodded.  “You and Barnes are both getting hitched to Sorrosian military.  I think it’s safe to say Pierce was pretty impressed with how hard you fought him on the invasion.  Rogers, you got Carter.  Barnes has Romanoff, her second in command.  Romanoff probably doesn’t have Carter’s public backing, but from all accounts, she is much handier with a knife.”

“Yay,” Bucky said dryly.

“And if I refuse?” Steve said, looking at Fury.

Fury shrugged.  “She’ll be executed.”

“For the crime of defending her home with nearly unmatched skill,” Steve said.

“You got it,” Fury agreed.

“And what happens to _us_ if we refuse?” Bucky asked.

“Nothing,” Fury said.  “Officially.”

“Unofficially?” Steve asked.

“You know Pierce.  He’ll come up with another way to make your lives a living hell.”  He shook his head.  “I told you not to go behind his back to Stark.”

Steve frowned.  He looked down at the folder again.  Conscripted pairings were incredibly common in the Empire, especially among military, since Stark retreated from the public eye, leaving Stane to handle most of the Empire’s day to day operations.  Pierce was appointed to Vizier, and everything started to change.  

It was routine, now, for Imperial soldiers to be forced to marry people from the worlds the Empire assimilated.  It was a depressingly effective way of bringing a society into the Imperial fold.  Any rebellious sentiment tended to be quashed as soon as an assimilated person found themselves the parent of a child who was an Imperial citizen, dependent on Imperial infrastructure to survive, regardless of how palatable the marriage itself was.

But conscripted pairings typically didn’t happen at Steve or Bucky’s pay grade.  There was nothing formally prohibiting it, but it wasn’t done.

“Were they given a choice?” Steve asked.

Fury nodded.  “Yeah.  Marry you two assholes, or hang.”

Steve cursed under his breath.

“Look,” Fury said, “Carter and Romanoff were military combatants, no question.  They should have been executed as a matter of protocol.  Trust me when I tell you that none of the human rights bleeding hearts are going to take up their cause as human trafficking.  Sorros is a level five integration.  They’re lucky to be breathing.  Pierce wanted to carpet bomb that entire planet.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Do you understand what has been said?” the woman bellowed in Basic, the official language of the Empire.

Peggy nodded, as did Natasha, and the other two dozen women and men in the room.  They were all dressed in the same drab gray jumpsuits.  Natasha was the only other person from Sorros.  The rest of them were from all over the galaxy, just more cogs in the Empire’s machine, as it consumed countless worlds.

The woman dismissed them, with a warning that their transport would arrive soon.  They’d been given a very blunt overview of what was expected of them in their marriages.  Obedience to the Empire was first and foremost.  Children were a close second.  A happy marriage, much less basic compatibility, really didn’t figure into it, as far as Peggy could tell.  They were expected to keep quiet and create more Imperial citizens.  

The only information they’d been given about their soon-to-be mates were names.  And even that information had only just been relayed.  Steve Rogers.  It was a common enough name, but combined with James Barnes, the name of Natasha’s intended mate, Peggy knew exactly who they were.  Military.  And not free market.  Imperial military.  

The transport would arrive and convey them to the Ministry of Justice.  The marriage ceremony would be held en masse.  Afterward, there would be a small reception, with plenty of alcohol, and everyone would be sent on their way.  In the following weeks there would be regular ‘integration training’.

Everyone in the room had been lowjacked, a tracking chip embedded at the base of the skull, that allegedly could not be removed or disabled.  Peggy and Natasha would be on probation for at least a year, perhaps more.  If they ever failed to be where they were supposed to be, or otherwise stepped out of line, they could be immobilized with the touch of a button.  

There would be a health check tomorrow morning.  The woman made it very clear that it was expected that there would be ample evidence that the marriage had been consummated.  If there wasn’t, it was grounds for immediate annulment, in which case they would be returned to the detention center.  And in Peggy’s case, executed.  If the consummation was verified, there were monthly blood draws to scan for pregnancy, as well as banned substances, including contraceptives.

Natasha nudged Peggy in the shoulder.  “Cheer up.”

Peggy glared down at her.  “Cheer up?  We’re being bartered off to Imperial idiots as spoils of war.  Our sole purpose is to be broodmares to make more little Imperial idiots.”

Natasha sighed.  “Live to fight another day, Carter.  Besides, how long has it been since you got laid?  And I saw the last one you had.  At least this one is decent looking.”

“Decent looking,” Peggy said dryly, knowing Natasha was just rattling her cage.  “Yes, Steve Rogers is decent looking”  She leaned in closer to Natasha. “But what is Pierce’s favorite enforcer doing being married off in some mass ceremony?”

“Exactly,” Natasha said, arching an eyebrow.

“We shouldn’t be here,” Peggy said quietly.  “I know Imperial protocol.  We should have been executed immediately.”

“And yet, we’re being married off to two of the Empire’s highest ranking military goons.  Goons who did _not_ participate in the Siege of Sorros, despite how high profile it was for the Vizier.  Makes you wonder if we’re the only ones being ‘rehabilitated’.”

Peggy frowned.  It did, indeed, make her wonder. It was obvious that there was far more at play here than the Empire wanting more citizens.  

 

* * *

 

 

“So we’re really going through with this?” Bucky said, adjusting the tie on his military uniform.

Steve frowned at his reflection in the mirror, trying to get the cowlick to stay down.  It was no use.  “I’m going through with this,” Steve said.  He glanced at Bucky.  “You can do whatever you want to do.”

“I want to go find a high spot and pick Pierce off with a clean shot,” Bucky groused.  

“That’s not an option.  Not right now.”

Bucky made a frustrated noise and paced in a tight circle.  He stopped and sighed.  “What do you think the odds are that she’ll stab me to death in my sleep?”

“You read her file,” Steve said blandly, knowing full well that it wouldn’t deter Bucky from sleeping with Romanoff.  Though Steve was rather shocked Bucky agreed to the marriage.  Steve suspected Bucky was just bored.

Bucky looked over at Steve.  “And then there’s Carter,” he said carefully.  

Steve arched an eyebrow at him.

Bucky nodded.  “You spent a lot of time researching her.”

“Yeah,” Steve replied evenly.

“You have a thing for her.”

Frowning, Steve ignored Bucky.  He stood up straight and adjusted the collar of his shirt.

“Just sleep with one eye open is all I’m saying,” Bucky said, frowning.

“And here I thought you were the one worried about being stabbed in his sleep,” Steve replied evenly.

  


* * *

 

There was a lot of awkward milling around as everyone was marched into the room and then paired up.  Peggy noticed the looks of surprise on the faces of the other soldiers as they saw Rogers and Barnes.  Everyone in attendance was given several minutes, to acquaint themselves with their intended mates, and, Peggy assumed, back out of the proceedings.  Not that she had that option, if she wanted to continue breathing.

Peggy looked Rogers over and he met her gaze, but quickly looked away.  She didn’t blame him.  She knew she must look like a drowned rat in her stained, ill-fitting jumpsuit.  She hadn’t had a shower in weeks and her hair was disgusting.  Meanwhile, he was even more attractive in person than she’d imagined.  She was at an immediate disadvantage.  All in all, it was a highly unsatisfactory situation.

Rogers seemed to steel his nerve and introduced himself.  He shook Peggy’s hand with a formality and respect that shocked her.  So far she’d been treated like dirt by every Imperial goon she’d had the misfortune of meeting.  She expected similar treatment from Rogers, given that he was the gold standard of Imperial conduct.  But he was attentive and respectful.  

Rogers didn’t appear to be any more excited about what was happening than she was.  Peggy found that encouraging.  It also seemed to back up Natasha’s theory that this arrangement was designed to be punitive not only for her and Natasha, but for Rogers and Barnes as well.

Peggy was standing at Rogers’ side, watching Natasha and Barnes across the room when Rogers turned to her.  She looked up, meeting his gaze.  His cheeks were stained with a slight blush and she knew he was nervous, but his voice was firm and deep as he addressed her.

“Peggy Carter, would you do me the honor of becoming my partner?” he asked, in very passable High Sorr.

Peggy looked at his outstretched hand.  He held a compass in his palm.  The compass was delicate, obviously intended more for decoration than function. It was a beautiful piece, crafted from silver and gold. She knew, at a glance, that it wasn't from Sorros, but whoever made it had been heavily influenced by Sorrosian design.  The piece was stunning, and significant thought had gone, not only into the compass, but into the entire gesture.

Thrown, she glanced back up and looked him in the eye.  He seemed like a man facing his executioner, but he held her gaze.  She opened her mouth to say something and then snapped it shut again.  Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded and accepted the compass.

Before either of them could say anything else, the assemblage was called to order.  The ceremony was nearly an hour long, and incredibly dry.  The entire time, Rogers stood perfectly at attention at her side, giving no outward indication of the hesitance he was obviously feeling.

Peggy had a growing certainty, that he hadn’t wanted this union any more than she did.  But he'd presented her with a compass. He apparently wasn’t some sadist who got off on the idea of bringing the rebel leader to heel.  That, at least, was comforting.

They were both forced into this farce of a marriage.  But he’d gone to the trouble of learning enough about her, about Sorros and its customs, to ask for her hand in marriage in one of the most respectful manners possible - albeit a bit antiquated.  Peggy clutched the compass tighter.  Offering a compass to one’s intended mate had been a hallmark of Sorrosian society for hundreds of years.

The ceremony finally concluded and there was a collective sigh of relief, several nervous laughs, and a handful of expressions of outright terror.  That was it.  They were officially married as far as the Empire was concerned.

Rogers stood there, not seeming to know what to do.  Peggy was quickly coming to realize that while he was a cunning military strategist and tactician, he wasn’t particularly accomplished at seduction.  Or maybe he just didn’t want her.  That was completely plausible.  She was pretty sure she smelled terrible.  In addition, maybe she wasn’t his type.  Maybe he didn’t like girls, or brunettes, or Sorrosians.  

Regardless, they were both stuck in this mess, and he seemed determined to meet her in the middle.  They were going to have to find a way to make this work, at least in the short term.  She needed time to plot.

Taking pity on Rogers, Peggy looped her arm through his and started for the folding table with the booze.  Natasha and Barnes were already there by the time Peggy and Rogers arrived.  Barnes and Rogers nodded to each other in acknowledgement, both looking rather shell shocked.  Natasha poured everyone a drink and they all retreated to a table in the corner.

The conversation was awkward and uneven.  As they got deeper into their cups, it became a little less so, at least for everyone but Rogers.  Natasha and Barnes were involved in some whispered argument that looked a lot like flirtation.  It was obvious there was some chemistry there.  Peggy had no idea if Natasha was legitimately intrigued or just putting on a show.  Barnes was handsome enough.  Peggy would bet it was genuine interest on Natasha’s part.

Peggy looked over at Rogers, who was frowning into his plastic cup.  “I commend you on your ability to hold your liquor, Captain Rogers.”

He looked over at her and shrugged.  “Alcohol has no effect on me.  And call me Steve, please.”

“Alright, then, Steve,” she said, smiling despite herself.  She leaned forward, asking, “Why does alcohol not affect you?”

He blushed again, which continued to strike her as odd.  He was a sinfully attractive man, positioned highly in the Empire’s military machine.  It made no sense that simple conversation should leave him so flustered.  Perhaps it was the fact that they were newlyweds.

Steve looked away, his jaw tight and then turned back to her.  She had the sense that he’d been asked the same question a multitude of times, but, perhaps for the first time, he was going to give an honest answer.  “I was part of something called Project Rebirth,” he said quietly.

“Dr. Erskine’s work,” Peggy replied, narrowing her eyes at him.  She had no idea the Empire actually weaponized Erskine’s project.  Bastards.

Steve looked surprised.  “You know Erskine’s research?”

“I ... _knew_ Dr. Erskine himself,” she said carefully.  “He was from Sorros.  He left, at the Empire’s request, years before the military campaign began.”

Steve nodded.  “I know.”  He took a deep breath.  “I owe him my life.  I was five foot four, ninety pounds.  I had every health defect you can imagine.  It was a constant struggle for everything.  I couldn’t find a job.  The military didn’t want me.”  He paused, took a deep breath.  “Dr. Erskine gave me a chance, a life, opportunities beyond my wildest dreams.”  He met her gaze.  “I’m trying to honor his memory.”

Peggy nodded, blinking quickly as she looked away.  She threw back the rest of her drink in one swallow.  Steve’s words made no sense.  As impressive as Dr. Erskine’s research had been, it was just that, research.  What Steve described, going from being ninety pounds to the man who sat at her side, defied logic.  And yet, as she looked at him, the grim line of his mouth, the way he hunched forward slightly, Peggy could see the echoes of the man he must have once been.

At least it explained why he was so uncomfortable with attention.  He hadn’t grown up as the man he was today.  He’d had a different path, likely a lonely and difficult path.  Today, from the outside, he appeared to have it all, and yet, that clearly did not line up with the man he was inside.

There was an announcement, bellowed over the PA.  The party was over.  

Everyone stood and started toward the exit.  Peggy and Natasha followed the crowd as Steve and Barnes ushered them out of the building and toward a transit stop.  It was late.  Peggy couldn’t stop herself from looking around in wonder.  The city was enormous.  The platform was packed.  As a train pulled into the station, Barnes nodded to both Steve and Peggy, and led Natasha toward the car.  Peggy watched as Natasha disappeared from view, feeling apprehensive.

There were two more trains before Steve ushered Peggy into one of the cars.  It was packed, people jostling into her constantly.  Steve found two empty seats and she took the spot closes to the window.  He didn't try and force conversation, giving her a moment to relax.

The train tracks were elevated and Peggy watched the cityscape as it passed.  It was mile after mile of highrise buildings and flashing billboards.  On the roads below, there were endless streams of headlights.  It was all so different from the bucolic beauty of Sorros - at least before the war.  The train crossed a wide river, and then into more crowded cityscape.  It was two stops before Steve nodded and they headed for the exit.

Given the late hour, there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic on the sidewalks.  Steve’s apartment was several blocks from the trainstop.  Another blank, monolithic building.  The elevator was slightly terrifying, but since he lived on the thirtieth floor, there wasn’t much choice.  He unlocked the door and flicked on the light, standing aside.  She entered the apartment, taking everything in.  It was small, compact, but not a shoebox.  There appeared to be a combined living room and kitchen, the division marked by a small table.  Peggy could see the door to the bathroom, and then another door, which presumably led to the bedroom.  It was all pre-fab, utilitarian, like the rest of the neighborhood.  Probably built in the last decade to house the massive influx of immigrants and refugees.  Surely there were military housing units.  She wondered why Steve didn’t live there.

“It’s not much,” Steve said quietly.  “We can find something else, if you don’t like it.  I’m not here often, so I don’t need a lot.”

Peggy nodded, but didn’t say anything as she looked around.  The apartment’s walls and floors were bare concrete and there was no decoration at all.  The furniture was serviceable, that’s probably the best that could be said for it.  There was a small couch in the living room, with a lamp and side table.  There was a small kitchen table with two chairs.  There were no curtains on the windows, only blinds.

It appeared that everything was in its place, but judging from the layer of dust coating every surface, it was obvious that he didn’t spend much time actually cleaning.  A conservative estimate put the space at approximately a thousand times cleaner than Peggy’s own quarters had been on Sorros.

She glanced at Steve and realized he was waiting for a response.  She nodded.  “It’ll do.”  She took a breath.  “So, you’re gone a lot?”

He nodded.  “Typically,” he said.  “But I have three months leave.  It’s mandatory, following a conscripted pairing.”

She arched an eyebrow, but nodded.  Obviously they were expected to get to work on making more Imperial citizens as soon as possible.  Shit.

Steve motioned to several bags sitting on the small table.  “I picked up some staples for you,” he said.  “They told me that you wouldn’t have anything.”

Peggy went to the bags and looked inside.  There were several changes of clothes.  Mostly typical attire in the Empire.  Leggings, jeans, athletic shoes, a variety of different shirts.  Undergarments.  The sizing looked more or less okay, if not her preferred style.  They must have given him her measurements - how efficient.  

None of the items he procured for her were extravagant, but it was all well made, quality items.  She knew it must have cost him.  It was yet another display of respect that she hadn’t anticipated.  It was even more perplexing in light of his home.  It was clear he didn’t spend a lot of time, money, or effort on appearances - or even creature comforts.  

Again, she wondered how their pairing happened, from his perspective.  Was he given a choice of potential mates and he chose her?  Or was he given a name, the same as her?

She nodded and looked in the other bag.  Toiletries.  They weren’t what she would have picked out herself, but they would work.  “Thank you.”

“If it’s not - “ he started and then fell silent.  She looked at him.  “If it’s not what you like, we’ll get something else.  I didn’t want you to not have anything.”

She nodded and looked back to the bags.  “Do you mind if I take a shower?  It’s been a while.”

He didn’t seem to know how to react to that, simply blinking at her.  Catching himself, he nodded.  “Of course.”  He walked over to the bathroom and turned on the light.  From the look of it, had recently been cleaned, which she appreciated.

Peggy thanked him again and then closed herself in the bathroom.  She stood there for a long moment, the bags clutched to her chest.  She looked at herself in the mirror and groaned.  God, she looked worse than she’d thought.  There were visible smears of dirt on the side of her cheek.  The skin beneath her left eye was still slightly yellowed from the shiner she’d had a few weeks ago.  As far as first impressions went, hers must have been abysmal.

Peggy tried to take it all in.  When she imagined being married off to one of Pierce’s star pupils, she hadn’t imagined this.  Steve Rogers defied all her expectations.  He seemed as ill at ease with the arrangement as she did.  He was shockingly respectful, thoughtful.  

Peggy pushed the line of thought away.  She couldn’t afford to get soft on her husband.  This marriage was an opportunity.  An opportunity to live, and to learn, and to position herself to strike a real blow at the heart of the Empire.  She was relieved that Steve Rogers wasn’t a sadistic monster.  But she couldn’t afford to lose sight of her ultimate goal.

**End Chapter**


	2. Chapter 2

Peggy looked at herself in the mirror and sighed.  At least she was clean now.  She’d also borrowed Steve’s razor.  He was going to have to be okay with that.  

She looked marginally better.  She probably smelled loads better.  She pulled the nightgown from the bag over her head.  It was simple, a light gray cotton jersey that covered her to the knees.  Definitely not a garment intended for seduction, which was interesting.  Given how prevalent conscripted pairings were, Peggy figured most stores must have some sort of starter pack with cheap, flashy lingerie.  Steve hadn’t gone that route.  He’d chosen a practical, comfortable garment.  She shook her head wondering what he was getting out of this marriage.  

Other than sex, which was a given.  Peggy reminded herself that she’d had sex for worse reasons, with far more distasteful partners.  She could do this, no problem. 

Steeling her nerve, she opened the bathroom door.  Steve shot off the couch instantly, turning to face her.  He’d removed his jacket and tie, but he looked far from comfortable.

Peggy held up the bag of new clothes.  “Do you have somewhere I can put these?”

He nodded, immediately crossing the room.  He went to the bedroom and turned on the light.  She followed.  He motioned to the top two drawers on the lone dresser.  He’d obviously emptied them out.  “If you don’t like it - “

“We can get something else,” she finished, teasing, ever so gently.  He gave her a lopsided smile, sighing.

She put her hand on his arm.  “Thank you.”

He nodded, swallowing thickly.

She looked around the room.  It was small.  There was a double bed with what looked like clean, if not soft, sheets.  The blanket was a gray, nearly the same color as the walls and floor.  She suspected the entire bedding set came pre-packaged in bulk.  The rest of the room was bare, save the small chest of drawers.  There was a door that likely led to a small closet.

Peggy turned and started putting things into the drawers.  She didn’t miss how Steve watched her, clearly trying to discern the contours of her body beneath the shapeless nightgown.  As soon as she turned to him, his head snapped in the other direction, his cheeks stained with a blush.  

Steve made to leave and Peggy said, “Please stay.”

He nodded.  “Okay.”

She put her things away and then sat down on the end of the bed.  He was nervous, but intrigued, she knew.  She patted the mattress and he took a seat.  Reaching over, she took his hand in hers, relieved when he didn’t pull away.  

“I know this is awkward,” she said.  She looked over at him.  “I’m sorry if you have someone else, someone you care for.”

He frowned at her, his brows puckered together.  Shaking his head, he said, “It’s not that.  It’s just ...”  He fell silent, looking away.  Taking a breath, he squeezed her hand, shaking his head again.  “I’ve never done this before,” he said, turning and meeting her gaze.  It was clear he was embarrassed, but his gaze never wavered.

She blinked at him, realizing he was referring not only to marriage, but to sex.  “ _ Oh _ .”

His lips pursed together.  He looked like a man facing a firing squad, but he didn’t pull away.

She looked at him.  This man.  Her husband.  Steve.  He’d already told her that he’d spent his formative years plagued by illness.  It wasn’t until Erskine brought him into Project Rebirth that he’d ever been given a chance to do anything of consequence, to be given the opportunity to better his life.  It was easy enough to think that Steve hadn’t had sex because he’d been so small and sickly, but she suspected it was more than that.  It was a choice inherent to Steve, regardless of his size.  

He’d waited.

But not for her.

It was an uncomfortable thought, so she pushed it away.  Neither of them would have chosen this path.  But regardless, it was their path.  They had to make the best of it.

Peggy glanced down at their hands, twined together.  Looking up at his face, she studied his features for a long moment.  He was a handsome man.  Blue eyes framed by heavy lashes.  Strong, but well proportioned features.  Gently, she reached up, touching his cheek, turning his head toward her.  He went where she led, leaning down toward her.  Softly, she kissed him.

He was hesitant at first, lips pursed together.  She could feel the tightly coiled tension in his body and jaw, but she now suspected it was self-consciousness, rather than lack of interest.  She pulled back far enough to speak and said, “Breathe, Steve.”

He took a deep breath and laughed nervously, but he relaxed somewhat.  This time when she kissed him, she could coax his lips apart.  She touched the tip of her tongue to the inside of his upper lip.  He sucked in a sharp breath, but didn’t pull away.  She could feel his hand fluttering over her shoulder and arm, obviously trying to decide how and where to touch her.  

She pulled back far enough to look at him, giving him a soft smile.  “Take off your shoes,” she said, as she stood.  He nodded and immediately bent to remove his shoes.  Meanwhile, she walked to the doorway.  “Do you have a survival pack?”  She knew they were standard issue for Imperial military.

His brow furrowed, but he nodded.  “In the closet by the front door.”

She walked through the apartment to the closet.  The pack was on the floor.  She took it and set it on the table, rummaging through it until she found what she wanted.  She turned off the living room light, and then paused with her hand against the kitchen switch.  “Do you have any booze?”

“Uh, no,” he said.  “Sorry.”

“It’s all right,” she replied, flipping off the light.  It wouldn’t do him any good, but it probably would have helped her.  Oh well.

When she returned to the bedroom, he was still sitting on the bed, his feet now bare.  His color was high and he still looked incredibly uneasy.  She held up the candle and matches.  His brows pinched together and then he made an ‘oh’ with his lips.  He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand absently.

Peggy lit the candle and set it on top of the chest of drawers, then crossed the room and turned off the bedroom light.  The candle didn’t put out much light and it definitely added to the intimacy.  Not being able to see each other so clearly made it somewhat easier.  

Peggy sat down on the bed again and turned, touching Steve’s jaw.  He immediately leaned over and kissed her again, less timid this time.  She traced the seam of his lips with her tongue and he sighed, opening for her.  She cupped her hand around his jaw, tilting his head so she could slant her mouth against his.  Tentatively, he touched his tongue to hers and she made an appreciative noise that had him leaning more against her, his hand gently kneading her shoulder.

She broke off the kiss and scooted back on the bed, tugging him with her.  She pulled the covers back and he helped, but it was clear he was still not at ease.  With gentle hands, she urged him to lay in the bed on his back.  She curled herself against his right side, one of her legs twined between his.  She could hear how fast he was breathing and she felt terrible for him.  It was heartbreaking that this was his first time.  She hated that he was wasting the moment on a conscripted obligation, and not sharing it with someone he truly loved, or even truly lusted for. 

Peggy settled her hand over his chest, above his heart.  Steve was literally sleeping with the enemy.  He’d read her file.  He knew how much of a grudge she had against the Empire.  She didn’t blame him for not knowing how to respond to her.

“I’m sorry we don’t have time to get to know one another better,” she said softly.

“No, I - “  He took a deep breath.  “I just -  Tell me if I do something wrong, okay?” he said gruffly.

She stopped, looking down at him in the dim light.  Against all odds, she thought she was really starting to like her husband.  He seemed like a very decent man.

She leaned down and kissed him softly.  He immediately turned his head toward her.  He wasn’t quite so tentative this time, his tongue tangling easily with her own.  His right arm was wrapped around her body, his right hand resting at the small of her back.  As they continued to kiss, his hand ventured lower, skimming over her backside.

“Yes,” she hissed, kissing him harder.  Her fingers moved to the buttons of his shirt, slowly releasing them.  She could feel him breathing faster, feel the muscles in his stomach jump under her touch, but he seemed to enjoy it.  With his shirt finally unbuttoned, she tugged his shirttails free of his trousers and then tugged at the hem of his undershirt.  

Cautiously, she touched the patch of bare skin just above the waistband of his trousers.  He shivered, kissing her harder, pulling her over him, against his chest.  She was sprawled across him, her forearms against his chest, her legs splayed on either side of his hips.  She looked down at him, now breathing as hard as he was.  She had the distinct impression he hadn’t exactly intended to do that.  He opened his mouth, for what she expected was going to be an apology, and she cut him off by moving.

She pushed herself up, her palms braced against his chest.  Pushing herself up forced her hips back, against his own.  She gasped at the feel of him, already so hard.  He groaned, closing his eyes, pressing his head back into his pillow, the muscles in his neck standing out.

She knew it was his first time and she ought to take it slow, but part of her thought maybe if they could just get it over with, it would dissipate some of the awkwardness.  And she knew there was a little more to it than that.  For as much as she was insulted by this entire situation, she couldn’t even try to pretend she didn’t want this man.  As Natasha had so bluntly stated, it had been a long time.  It was clear that Steve wanted her, physically at least.  He was attractive and willing.  Either way, they had to consummate things.

She lifted herself off him, fingers quickly working at his belt.  She had his belt loose and his trousers unzipped before he opened his eyes again.  But as she started to tug his trousers down his hips, his eyes did shoot open.  His lips parted, but whatever he was going to say died as she gripped him through his shorts.

He groaned her name, his fingers kneading her thighs.  She stroked him several times over his shorts and then tugged his trousers down to mid thigh, followed quickly by his shorts.  She took him in her hand, stroking lightly and he gasped.

Carefully, she positioned herself over him and slowly slid down on him, her breath catching as he filled her.  His eyes fluttered shut again and she watched his throat as he swallowed thickly.  She paused for only a moment before rising on him again.

“No, Peggy, wait,” he yelped, but it was too late.  His hands found her hips, slamming her down against him and his body went taut for a long moment before he collapsed back against the bed, breathing hard.

She sat there, looking at him, stunned.  She’d wanted to get it over with, but she hadn’t anticipated being quite that efficient.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.  He swallowed thickly.  “Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

She mumbled a half considered reply under her breath and climbed off him.  He immediately tugged up his shorts and trousers and she knew how mortally embarrassed he had to be.

In that moment, Peggy’s heart ached for him.  She’d moved too far, too fast.  And rather than the consummation dissipating the awkwardness between them, it was now infinitely worse.  

Dammit.  

She was the more experienced partner.  After all the respect he accorded her, she could have done him the favor of not making his first sexual experience a complete disaster.

Cautiously, she put a hand on his shoulder.  “Steve.”

He turned and looked at her, his expression guarded.  She could see his blush, even in the dim light.

Giving him a soft smile, she leaned in and kissed him again.  

He seemed to take it for the lifeline that it was, wrapping his arm around her waist, pulling her close.  More slowly this time, she managed to get him out of his button up and undershirt, kissing and touching him the entire time.  Despite his embarrassment, he responded easily.  

Once he was bare, she ran her hands over his chest and back.  She lost herself for a moment, forgetting about being gentle with him as she licked and kissed and bit at his shoulders and chest.  Jesus his body was phenomenal.

He seemed to enjoy her enthusiasm, making appreciative noises as his fingers twined through her hair.  His neck was particularly sensitive and she climbed into his lap, wrapping herself around him to get better access.  She could feel him, hard again already, and it made her shiver.  She groaned his name, taking his hands and urging him to touch her.

He was tentative at first, tracing carefully over the nightgown she still wore.  “Take it off,” she said.

He pulled back and looked at her.

“Please,” she offered.

He nodded and slowly pulled the nightgown up.  She obliged, lifting her arms so he could pull it off.  She shook her head, sending her damp hair fluttering around her shoulders.  She braced her hands behind herself on the bed, watching as his gaze immediately dropped to her chest.  

She let him look for several long moment and then she said, “I’m your wife, Steve.  Touch me.”

He looked at her, but she didn’t have the impression that he was able to string any coherent thoughts together.  She reached for his hand and brought it to her shoulder, then her collarbone, slowly moving it lower until he cupped her breast in his hand.

He stared at his hand for a moment and then shifted, touching her lightly.  His lips parted slightly as he brushed his thumb over her puckered nipple.  She groaned, arching her back, giving him better access.  Then all at once, he surged forward, capturing her lips and kissing her hard.  She wrapped her arms around him, which brought her bare chest against his.  They kissed with frantic passion, for long moments.  

Finally, she pulled back, climbing off him.  “Lose the trousers and shorts.”

He nodded, scrambling out of his clothes.  Watching him, she lay back on the bed.  As soon as he was bare, she urged him to come to her.  She forced herself to take a breath and slow down.  A repeat of what they just did wasn’t going to help anyone.

He lay on his side next to her, his fingers tracing lightly over her breast.  He ducked his head and kissed her.  She pressed her hand to his chest and then moved lower, down his body.  She took him in hand, stroking him lightly.

He shook his head.  “Peggy, if you do that, I’m gonna - “

“I know,” she said gently.  “That’s the point. We have to figure this out, and you’re way too keyed up.  Let me take care of that.”

He nodded helplessly, his eyes fluttering shut as she stroked him firmly.  It took longer than the first time, but it didn’t take long.  His breath hissed through his teeth as he came, his face buried against the juncture of her neck and shoulder.

She held him for a long moment.  As soon as he seemed to have his wits back, she said, “Give me your shorts.”

He did, watching as she cleaned up the mess and tossed the shorts back on the floor.  

She pulled his head down, urging him to kiss her.  “Now it’s my turn,” she said, taking his hand in hers, showing him how to touch her.  He was a quick study, she’d give him that.  She only had to show him once.

She moaned, opening her legs wider, giving him better access.  “Use two fingers,” she said, biting down on her lip as she nodded at him.  “Yes, like that.  And then your thumb.”  She groaned.  “ _ Fuck _ .” It didn’t take long.  She came apart, her fingernails digging deeply into his forearm as she cursed his name.

As she tried to catch her breath, he kissed her.  Across her cheeks, along her jaw, finally on the mouth.  She could feel the smile on his lips and she suspected he was rather pleased with himself.  That was fine.  Even with the initial disaster, he was already better than a number of her previous lovers.  It was clear he wanted her to enjoy herself.

The candle flickered out and they were in darkness.  Maybe it was that they were both so exhausted, physically and mentally.  But when she finally tugged him over her, there was little room for either of them to feel self-conscious or premeditated about things.  It was just the two of them, husband and wife, in the close darkness.

It wasn’t the most elegant performance she’d ever been a part of, but Steve was an attentive and generous lover, despite his inexperience.  He made certain she found her release again before he took his own.

Afterward, they held each other.  Peggy wasn’t a cuddler, but she found herself pulling him close regardless.  He seemed to want the reassurance of her touch, and she was happy to give it, after how badly she’d bungled things.

Peggy reminded herself that this entire relationship was an opportunity, a means to an end.  She had to keep her mind on the goal.  

She just wasn’t certain the rest of her was getting the memo.

 

* * *

 

Steve sat next to her on the train, quietly.  It was early.  Peggy’s appointment was at a quarter of seven in the morning, no doubt to accommodate the sheer volume of patients they needed to assess.  That morning wasn’t how she had imagined waking up with her new husband.  Not that she’d ever been prone to such imaginings.  Or ever wanted a husband, for that matter.

Steve was left with no doubt that she was, categorically, not a morning person.

“Are you okay?” he had asked earlier, obviously concerned he’d done something wrong, despite putting in a considerably more competent showing than the previous night.

“I’m on my way to have an imperial doctor verify that your semen is inside my vagina, Steve,” she snapped.  “I’m fabulous.”

She knew she wasn’t being fair, lashing out at him like that.  But there was only so much she could take.  Especially at that ungodly hour of the morning.  And Steve’s coffee was abysmal.

Peggy knew that Steve hated this farce of a health check as much as she did.  Actually, he looked more upset about it than she felt.  They’d had sex again.  Twice.  Just to be sure.  Peggy wasn’t about to be sent back to the detention center on a technicality.  But the mercenary nature of the act hadn’t done anything to dissipate the tension between the two of them.

Whatever ease they’d found with each other the previous night was long gone, and they were both left frustrated.  

The health check was every bit as degrading as she expected.  Luckily it only took a few minutes.  She passed with flying colors.  

For someone accustomed to leading armies, it was a dubious accomplishment at best.

But Peggy didn’t miss the note in her file.  That results were to be relayed immediately to the office of the Vizier.  Peggy had suspected already, but now she was certain.  

She was given to Steve as a punishment.  

She had no idea why he accepted the marriage.  He was clearly on Pierce’s shitlist, but he was still a man to be reckoned with.  Pierce surely didn’t have the political capital to force Steve into a marriage he didn’t want.  

Which meant that Steve agreed.  Why?  Why would he do that?  

Steve didn’t even know her.  They hadn’t met before that damn marriage ceremony.  And it was obvious he hadn’t been looking to get laid.  If it had been left up to him, she had no doubt that the marriage wouldn’t have been consummated.

The only reason that Peggy could find was that Steve had some misguided loyalty to Erskine’s memory.  She respected his loyalty and his intentions.  But she wasn’t a damsel in distress who needed saving.

 

* * *

 

Steve and Peggy spent the rest of the morning picking up more necessities for Peggy, including feminine hygiene products.  She was due to start bleeding in a few days.  Steve didn’t look nearly as embarrassed about that as she suspected he would.  She gave him points for that.

They also picked up several more changes of clothes, and hair conditioner.  Some more candles, which did make Steve blush.  Go figure.  A bottle of gin.  Steve might not get anything out of it, but Peggy would.

Steve admitted he wasn’t much of a cook, and when Peggy said the same, they stopped in a diner for lunch.  Peggy’s mood improved dramatically with food.  

She reminded herself, again, that making enemies with Steve would benefit no one.  She trusted her instincts as far as human nature was concerned.  Steve seemed like a good man.  And she needed him.  She needed his access and influence if she was ever going to pay the Empire back for what they did to Sorros.

 

* * *

 

Steve seemed to have no idea how to occupy his time.  They were both milling around the apartment, which made it seem infinitely smaller.  Peggy was pretty sure he’d read the paper a half dozen times already.  He was as ready to climb the walls as she was.

“I’m going to assume you don’t take a lot of R&R,” she said, watching him sort through his gear in the closet for the second time in an hour.

He looked up at her and frowned.  “This is the first leave I’ve ever taken, that is actually leave.  Usually if I so much as think about it, I get called up.”

She sighed.  “I’m bored.”

He gave her a tight smile.  “Me too.”

She nodded, and then paused.  “Do you want to have sex?”

He looked at her.  “Yes.”

She pointed at the couch.  “Take a seat.”

He didn’t jump for the couch, but he moved quickly.  Peggy kicked off her shoes as she walked toward him.  Then she leaned down and removed her socks, aware that his attention was completely riveted on her.  She grabbed the hem of her shirt and looked at him, and then pulled the shirt over her head, dropping it to the floor.  He swallowed thickly.

She closed the distance between them, inserting one of her knees between his, forcing his legs wider.  Standing between his splayed legs, she held out her hand.  He placed his hand in hers and she slowly guided him to the button of her jeans.  Taking a deep breath, he undid the button, and then slowly pulled down the zipper.  She could hear her own breathing.  He leaned forward slightly, to tug the jeans down her legs.  She put her hand on his shoulder, steadying herself as she stepped out of the material.

He looked up at her, shifting, leaning against the back of the couch.  She watched him.  It was obvious that he was excited.  She put her hands on his shoulders again and climbed onto the couch, her knees on either side of his hips, her breasts in his face.  He immediately leaned forward, kissing along the lace edge of her bra as his hands found her hips.

His hands massaged her bottom as he continued to kiss her breasts.  He licked and sucked at her nipple through the silky fabric, earning a gasp of pleasure from her.  Tugging at her hips, he pulled her down, kissing her as she rocked against him.

She moved back far enough to slip a hand between their bodies and she rubbed him through his trousers and shorts.  His breath caught and his eyes screwed shut as he groaned her name.

 

* * *

 

They were both dozing in the bed.  Their clothes were all still in the living room.  It had been a rather athletic session, taking them from one end of the apartment to the other.  Peggy was more than a little astounded with how quickly Steve was upping his game.  It was obvious why he was such a fearsome military opponent.  He was incredibly observant and adaptable.  

She also assumed he was trying to make a point.  Which was fine with her.  It was a good point.  She was all for it.  The marriage itself may have been a sham, but there was absolutely no reason she shouldn’t enjoy herself for the duration.

When the phone rang, Steve got up and answered it.  She couldn’t hear much of the conversation, but then Steve was standing in the doorway to the bedroom.  “Do you want to have dinner with Bucky and Natasha?”

Peggy nodded.  “Yes.”

She heard a few more exchanges and then Steve hung up the phone.  

“Bucky?” she said, arching an eyebrow in question.

“Uh, yeah,” Steve said.  “Nickname.”  It was clear he was beginning to feel slightly self-conscious, standing naked in his kitchen.  He hooked his thumb toward the bathroom.  “I’m gonna shower.”

“Excellent idea,” Peggy said.  “I’ll join you.”

  
  


* * *

 

On the way to dinner, it became apparent that Steve still didn’t seem to know how to act toward Peggy in public spaces.  He was always polite and accommodating, but he was mindful of her personal space.  Peggy wasn’t sure if it was for his benefit or hers, but either way, she ignored it.  She looped her arm through his as they walked down the sidewalk.  He didn’t pull away, or give any indication that he was opposed.  But he seemed determined to let her set the terms of their physicality.

Natasha and Barnes were already at the restaurant when Steve and Peggy arrived.  They had a booth in the back and were arguing about something.  Peggy knew at a glance that it was the type of bickering that served as foreplay.  Barnes and Natasha were both flirtatious, provocative creatures, and Peggy had no doubt that Natasha had checked out okay at her appointment.

“Carter,” Natasha said, looking up as Peggy slid into the booth.

“Rogers, actually,” Peggy corrected.

Natasha arched an eyebrow.

Dinner conversation was bland and uneven at first.  But it eventually found a rhythm.  Steve and Barnes - Bucky - talked sports, and then later, about the cost of living.  The conversation confirmed what Peggy already suspected - Steve Rogers was a tightwad.  

Natasha told Peggy about a bakery she’d found in Barnes’ neighborhood that specialized in Sorrosian pastries.  It was absurd.  Peggy was certain she and Natasha had never discussed anything so mundane in their lives.  It was a testament to just how bored everyone was.

“You have class tomorrow?” Natasha asked.

Peggy nodded.  “Section twelve.”

“Four,” Natasha countered.

Peggy wasn’t at all shocked that she and Natasha wouldn’t be in the same integration classes.   The Empire was very adept at chewing up societies and spitting out more Imperial worker bees.  They knew how to train new Imperial immigrants to acclimate to society.  Peggy was certain that a large part of that assimilation process involved keeping immigrants from hostile territories away from each other, to minimize the possibility of collusion against the government.

“What about you two?” Natasha asked Steve and Barnes.  “Do you have to go to class?”

“For what?” Barnes asked dryly.  “To learn how to wait on my mail order bride to bring me a sandwich?”  He grunted loudly as Natasha dealt him a blow underneath the table.

“No,” Steve said, glaring at Barnes.  “No classes.  No nothing.  We’re on leave.”

Peggy looked at him speculatively.  She wondered if he and Barnes weren’t specifically being kept away from their fellow soldiers as well.

Dinner continued far longer than necessary.  No one at the table seemed eager to get back to their respective homes.  For all of Barnes and Natasha’s obvious chemistry, Peggy knew well that sex could only get you so far.  And then there was a lot of staring at each other.

As the night wore on, Peggy leaned more and more against Steve.  Natasha was finally the one to throw in the towel.  “We’re out of here,” she said, shoving at Barnes until he got out of the booth and stood up.  They were still trading barbs as they walked to the door.

Steve slid out of the booth and waited for Peggy.  He kept his hand at the small of her back as he escorted her to the door.

By the time they got back to the apartment, there was a tension in the air.  Peggy didn’t bother turning on the lights.  She pulled Steve into the apartment and backed him against the door, kissing him.

 

END CHAPTER


	3. Chapter 3

Steve’s expression was pinched as he stood outside the classroom the next morning.  Peggy could almost feel how badly he wanted to tell her to behave.  Luckily for him, he didn’t say anything.  

Peggy thought she should be somewhat accustomed to all the new rules in her life.  But they still chafed.  Steve had to escort her to and from class.  To and from everywhere.  She would be re-assessed in three months, and perhaps given a tiny bit more autonomy.  She had no intention of still playing this game in three months.

The Imperial integration class had about two dozen participants, from all corners of the galaxy.  Clearly, some of them were better positioned financially and socially than others.  The content of the class itself was a nauseating litany of Imperial propaganda, which some of the students ate up.  Peggy spent most of it biting her tongue and suppressing her gag reflex.

Steve looked a little sheepish when she left the classroom.  She wondered how much of the instruction he’d overheard, and what he thought of it.  The more time Peggy spent around Steve, the less she felt she knew about her husband.  He continued to defy her expectations.  For an Imperial poster boy, he was surprisingly hard to pin down.  Well, other than literally.  That part was fairly easy, actually.

 

* * *

 

They caught lunch and then Steve took her to see a few sights.  They were at an amusement park on a beach.  It was still surreal to Peggy how life in the heart of the Empire continued.  Sorros had been brought to ruin, and none of these people even knew.

Peggy watched the crowds in front of the ferris wheel.  “I don’t want children.”

Steve looked over at her.

She crossed her arms over her chest.  “Not right now,” she amended.  And probably not with him, though she didn’t say that part  “I had a contraceptive implant.  Before.  They removed it at the detention center.”  She glanced at him, but he was just watching her.  “They do monthly blood tests, so I can’t take care of it myself, otherwise I would.”

“Okay,” he said carefully.

She looked at him and knew he still wasn’t understanding.  “I need you to buy condoms, Steve.”

“ _Oh_.”  His sense of relief was palpable.  She realized he thought she was shutting down their sex life entirely.  “Yes ma’am.”

She glanced at him again.  “Are you upset?”

He shook his head.  “No.”

“You don’t want children?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.  “The Empire seems hell bent on them.”

He frowned.  “I would prefer that you and I decide what we want, and when we want.  Together.”

“And if I’m locked up for failing to produce?” she pressed.

He sighed, looking out at the waves, and then back to her.  “No one is taking you anywhere, Peggy.  Not while I'm here.”  

He said it with such quiet conviction that she really wondered, for the first time, what she meant to him.  She was more and more convinced that his marriage to her had nothing to do with loyalty to the Empire.  Was it really just loyalty to Erskine’s memory?

 

* * *

 

They stopped at the pharmacy on the way home.  Steve had been quiet, since she told him she didn’t want kids.  His answer had been politic enough, but she wondered what he really thought about it.  She had no idea what intentions he had with this marriage.  Maybe it was as much of a cover for him as it was for her.

They grabbed something for dinner from a vendor in the park and walked around some more.  There wasn’t a lot of small talk, which was fine with Peggy.  Except that it wasn’t.  She understood, on some level, that it was probably easier if they didn’t get attached to one another.   Not that she thought there was a danger in either of them getting attached.  

But though she saw the necessity of maintaining a distance from Steve, she was also aware that she didn’t like it.  

The entire situation was infuriating.

By the time they were headed back to the apartment, she was in a foul mood.

They hadn’t been in the apartment for more than a few minutes when the phone rang.  Steve’s expression sobered as he answered and she knew from his tone that it wasn’t Barnes.  She sat down on the couch with a book she’d picked up, though she didn’t pay much attention to it.

Steve finally hung up and crossed the room to her, frowning, hand rubbing the back of his neck.  “I got an assignment,” he said.  “I’ll probably be gone a week.  Maybe more.  Offworld.”

She arched an eyebrow at him.  “I thought you had mandatory leave for three months.”

“So did I,” he said bluntly.  It was obvious he wasn’t excited about this.

She set her book down and looked at him.  “What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?” she asked.  “I can’t go anywhere unescorted.”

He nodded.  “Emergency circumstances.  I got a special dispensation for you.  But not as much leeway as I wanted.  They recoded your tracker.  You can go to and from class, and to and from store on the corner, unescorted.”  He sighed.  “I’m going to call Buck.  He and Natasha can check on you, take you out if you need anything else.  You’ll be able to go anywhere, so long as you’re with Bucky.  I’ll leave you the information to be able to access the credits in my bank account.”

She nodded.  What else could she say?  Her dependence on him wasn’t his doing.  This is how the Imperial system worked.  Without him she had no status, and she would only ever have as much autonomy as he allowed.  

She pushed herself off the couch.  “I’m going to take a shower.”

* * *

 

When she got out of the shower, Steve was on the phone again.  He had his pack strewn across the kitchen counter.  It was clear he was getting ready for tomorrow.  She could tell from Steve’s side of the conversation that he was talking to Barnes.

Knowing that this situation wasn’t of Steve’s creation did nothing to calm the irrational anger she felt toward him right now.  Deciding that silence was the better part of valor, she went to bed.  She lay there for a long time, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

Steve eventually came to bed.  She pretended to be asleep, though she wasn’t sure if he bought it or not.  He slid between the covers, laying there on his back.  “Bucky and Natasha are coming over tomorrow afternoon.”

She sighed.  “I can manage on my own,” she said.  “I don’t need a minder.”

“They want to help,” he said quietly.

She lay with her back to him, wondering if he would touch her, but he didn’t.  He finally rolled over onto his stomach.

“You’re leaving for a week,” she said, “and you don’t want to have sex.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to have sex,” he replied evenly.

“Actions speak quite loudly, Steve.”

He sighed, rolling onto his side, facing her.  She rolled over onto her back, looking in his direction.  It was too dark to actually see anything.

“I just - “ he started and then stopped.  He took a breath.  “I understand you not wanting kids.  That’s not an issue.”

“But?” she prompted.

“Why are we doing this?” he said.  “Don’t get me wrong.  I'm very attracted to you.  I enjoy the hell out of being with you.  But I have no illusions about -”  He stopped.  “I know it could be better for you, is all.”  He pushed himself into a sitting position.  

She waited, not wanting to derail whatever he was trying to say.

“It’s not required, Peggy,” he said flatly.  “I know that you chose this marriage.  But I also know your other option was death, so I’m not reading too much into that.”  He snorted mirthlessly.  “We consummated things, so as far as Pierce and the Imperial Integration Ministry are concerned, we’re a textbook marriage.”

“As far as _they’re_ concerned,” Peggy said.  “What about you?”

She could feel him shrug.  “I know your record, Peggy,” he said seriously.  “I know you’re never going to play by Pierce’s rules.  I know you’re going to go along and get along, until they give you enough freedom to make a clean getaway.  You’re a fighter.  You’ve always been a fighter.  A forced marriage to me isn’t going to change that.”  He took a deep breath.  “I respect you.  I’m not going to betray you.  So don’t feel like you have to sleep with me as part of some ploy to gain my trust.”

Peggy sat up and then pushed herself up onto her knees, facing Steve.  “A ploy,” she said.  “You think me sleeping with you is a ploy?”

“I think it’s one of the oldest moves in the book,” he said dryly, and not without a healthy dose of self-deprecation.

“Well,” she said tartly, “it appears you have me all figured out, Captain Rogers.”

He was quiet.  He’d just given her the perfect out.  He knew her play, and he said he’d keep her confidence.  It was clear he had his own quiet war with Pierce.

Peggy knew she should be grateful.  They could dispense with this farce of a relationship entirely.

But gratitude wasn’t what she was feeling.

She set her hand over his.  Slowly, she traced up his arm, her fingertips barely skimming over his skin.  She leaned forward, playfully biting into the corded flesh of his shoulder.  His breath caught sharply.  “Maybe you’re right,” she said.  “Maybe it’s manipulation.”  She sighed.  “Or maybe I just want to fuck my husband.”

He groaned, turning his head and capturing her lips at the same time his hands found her hips, hauling her into his lap.

* * *

 

By the time Peggy woke, she suspected Steve had been gone for hours.  She had vague recollections of him kissing her goodbye.  It was just as well that he was gone, since she started bleeding.

She had class, so she made herself presentable and headed out. More of the same ridiculous lipservice.  There was a guy in the class, Gilmore Hodge.  He was from a recently integrated world - level 1 integration, which as far as Peggy could tell, consisted mostly of paperwork.  All Hodge did was complain about having to be in class.  His father was an Imperial citizen.  He felt that he should be exempt as he could already recite all of the tenets of Imperial conduct from memory.

Peggy’s fingers itched to throttle him.

After class, she went back to the apartment and stared at the wall.  The phone rang and she answered it before the first ring was finished.

“Jesus,” Natasha said.  “Bored?  We’ll be over.”

Natasha nosed around the apartment a little and then they all went out for lunch.  Peggy was glad to discover that Steve had been right.  It seemed that as long as she was with Barnes, her transmitter didn’t respond.

As they finished up lunch, Natasha said, “Do you want to come over?”  She cocked her head at Barnes.  “He has a house.”

“ _We_ have a house,” Barnes said absently.  Natasha rolled her eyes.

“A house?” Peggy said.

Natasha shook her head.  “Don’t get excited.  It’s a shitty house, in a shitty part of the city.  But it’s probably more interesting than that apartment.”

Natasha was right.  Barnes’ house was, indeed, shitty.  It was far from Steve’s orderly neighborhood, in a section of the city that obviously had yet to be gentrified.  

“Steve and I grew up in this neighborhood,” Barnes said.  “This is my parents’ old place.”

Peggy nodded.  “I didn’t realize you and Steve grew up together.”

He just shrugged.

The house was two stories, in desperate need of a paint job, with a badly overgrown lawn.  Inside, it was a mishmash of styles.  According to Natasha, there were five bedrooms even though Barnes had lived alone until quite recently.  It made Peggy wonder what had happened to Barnes’ family.

Barnes did Natasha and Peggy the favor of disappearing upstairs, leaving them alone in the old kitchen, which looked like it was in the process of being remodeled.  “How is your integration training going?” Peggy asked.

“Great.  Some of the best sleep I’ve had in years.”

Peggy frowned.

“You gotta let it roll off, Carter,” Natasha said.  “Even the Imperials know they’re full of shit.  It’s the game and we have to play it.”

Peggy knew she was right, but it was so infuriating to sit there and pretend to be unaffected.  To listen to Gilmore Hodge espouse the glory of the same people who had destroyed her world.

Natasha looked around the kitchen.  “I’ll be right back.”

Peggy sipped her coffee until Natasha returned with a manila envelope.  She tossed it to Peggy.  “Not now,” she said.  “But later.  Take a look.”

They made small talk for a long time, but Peggy was finally the one who broached the subject.  “So how is Barnes?”

Natasha gave her a long look.  “He’s ... interesting,” she said.  “There’s more there than you’d think at first glance.”  She took a drink of her coffee.  “And Rogers?”

Peggy crossed her arms over her chest.  “He and Pierce are at odds.”

Natasha nodded.  “From what I can tell, Sorros was the tipping point between the two of them.”  She looked at Peggy, narrowing her eyes.  “Do you believe the rumors of a full blown resistance against the Empire?”

Peggy shrugged.  “Steve doesn’t say much, certainly nothing about Imperial politics.  But I know he doesn’t like Pierce.”  She shook her head.  “I still don’t know why he agreed to this marriage.  Clearly Pierce set him up.  The smart play would have been to refuse.”

Natasha arched an eyebrow.  “Read that file.”

Peggy looked at the envelope again, and then back to Natasha.  “And Barnes?  What’s his involvement in all of this?”

“James has Rogers’ back,” Natasha said.  “Beyond that, I don’t know.”  She gave Peggy a speculative look.  “How was Rogers, really?” she asked.  “James made some vague allusions to the fact that Rogers isn’t very ... experienced.”

“Why do you ask?” Peggy said coolly, bristling on Steve’s behalf.

Natasha shrugged, smiling.  “Just wondered.”

Peggy was spared having to answer when Barnes wandered down the stairs and into the kitchen.  “I’m ordering pizza,” he said.  “What do you want?”

* * *

 

Dinner was fine.  The day, overall, was a welcome change of pace.  Peggy knew that was true as much for Barnes and Natasha as it was for herself.  After dinner, they escorted her back to the apartment, with a promise to stop by the next day.

It wasn’t that Peggy missed Steve.  How could you miss someone you’d only just met?  But the place seemed slightly unnerving without him there.  

She ran through a couple of sets of exercises, trying to burn off some steam, and then took a shower and changed into her pajamas.  She took one of the lamps from the living room and moved it into the bedroom, along with an end table she used as a nightstand.

Then she made herself a gin and tonic and curled up in bed with the manila envelope Natasha had given her.  Peggy’s eyes went wide as she saw what the documents were.  Classified, internal correspondence, assessments of Sorros before the invasion began.  She immediately bristled.  There were scores of reports, apparently commissioned by Pierce, on the threat Sorros posed to the Empire.  It was beyond ridiculous.  Facts had been twisted, and in many places, invented, all in the name of justifying an armed invasion.

Peggy was livid.

These lies cost millions of people their lives.  Millions more had been displaced, moved into rehabilitation centers, so the Empire could strip Sorros of its natural resources.

At the bottom of the pile of documents was the lone, dissenting report.  It was careful, and well reasoned, but it left no doubt that the author intended for the Empire to leave Sorros alone.  It suggested beginning diplomatic relations and compensating Sorros well for whatever resources she was willing to trade.  It made strong arguments for leaving Sorros’ governing bodies in place, and acknowledging her as a sovereign world.  It also mentioned Peggy specifically, by name, as an incredibly competent military leader who had the potential to cost the Empire greatly, if provoked.

Peggy knew, before she turned the last page, whose name she was going to see on the end of the report.  But there it was.  Captain Steve Rogers.

He’d known who she was, years before the invasion began.  He tried to stop it.  There were more notes, about Steve’s request to meet with Stark.  It had been denied and he met with Stane instead.  He’d gone behind Pierce’s back, all to try and save a world he’d never even visited.  

 _This_ was why Pierce let her live, why he engineered her conscripted marriage to Steve.  As punishment, not only for Steve trying to foil Pierce’s plans, but for the fact that Steve had been right.  Peggy knew exactly how badly the Siege of Sorros had been bungled, how badly the Empire underestimated them.  It was a mark on Pierce’s otherwise stellar record.  He wanted to hang Steve out to dry for crossing him, and for being right.

Pierce had to know there was no way in hell that Peggy could be rehabilitated into an upstanding Imperial citizen.  He fully expected her to rebel, to cause a scene, to fight the Empire to her dying breath.

 _That_ was why he gave her to Steve.

Because he knew Steve respected her, and wouldn’t force her into check.

Peggy was supposed to do Pierce the favor of getting rid of Steve for him.

“Fuck,” Peggy cursed impotently.  She couldn’t swear allegiance to the Empire.  She couldn’t.  It was a betrayal of everything she held sacred.  She _had_ to fight.

But if she did, she would be giving Pierce the perfect opportunity to get rid of Steve.  All for Steve’s unforgivable crime of respecting her world, and her competence.

And Steve would have taken the fall, without ever telling her the whole story.

 

**End Chapter**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

In Steve’s absence, Peggy forced herself to get on with her day.  She showed up to her integration class in a vicious mood.  Hodge wasn’t there and she could have wept with frustration.  She wanted to hit someone so badly her hands ached with it.

She went back to the apartment and tried to calm down, but it was no use.  When she finally yanked the door open at Natasha’s knock, Natasha just looked at her.  “Guess you read the file,” she said blandly.

Barnes gave Peggy and Natasha a lot of space, for which Peggy was grateful.  Natasha listened to Peggy’s rants, but didn’t say much.  She admitted she got the file from Barnes, whose only comment had been ‘it pays to know where the bodies are buried.’

 

* * *

 

The rest of the week was largely the same.  Peggy went to class, Natasha and Barnes stopped by to check on her.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Peggy’s anger slowly mellowed from vitriolic rage into a seething irritation.

She had a health assessment at the end of the week, directly after her integration class.  Peggy had no idea if her tracker compensated for that or not.  Truthfully she didn’t even give a shit.  If it knocked her out while she tried to be compliant, so be it.

The tracker, apparently, had been updated.  She was able to make her way to the clinic without incident.  It was just a blood draw, by a tech who seemed incredibly harried.  He capped the vial and glanced at her file.  “One last thing.”  He picked up an electronic device and waved it over the nape of her neck.  He smiled.  “Looks like you’re off restrictions.”

Peggy wandered out of the office, unsure if what she thought happened had actually just happened.  She went back to the apartment.  Had the tech really disabled her tracker?  She gave it an hour, but then her curiosity got the better of her.  She started toward the store, but several blocks from her destination, she stopped.  She started down a side street.  Typically, when she got to the edge of her approved range, the tracker would start to itch and then sting, quickly escalating in pain.

But as she headed down the street, there was ... nothing.

Peggy had no destination in mind.   

Did she want to leave?  This was a hell of an opportunity.  Steve wasn’t here.  Her tracker was disabled.  She had no idea why.  It could have been a mixup in the paperwork, or something more nefarious.  But what did it matter to her?  She could be gone.  She could find the resources, somehow, to get off this damn planet, to get out of Imperial space.

So why was she just standing on the sidewalk?

Steve Rogers was a fucking idiot.  A patsy.  A chump.

Peggy never asked him to protect her.  She never asked him for  _ anything _ .

If she left, and he took the fall for it, that was on him, not her.  He was the one who could have walked away from this marriage without a mark on his record.  He  _ chose  _ this.  He chose  _ her.   _ He did this all to himself.

If Pierce could use this situation to hang Steve out to dry, it was on Steve.  Peggy absolutely refused to feel guilty.

This didn’t explain why, rather than making for the nearest transport center, she slowly walked back to the apartment.  Everything about this situation was unacceptable.  So maybe she did owe Steve, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to martyr herself for him.  

They were going to end this sham relationship.  And then each of them were going to walk away, with only themselves to worry about.

 

* * *

 

Peggy was trying to sleep when she heard the door.  She got out of bed and flipped on the kitchen lights, watching as Steve walked through the door.

“I know you defied Pierce’s orders and went straight to Stark about Sorros,” she snapped.

He stood there, blinking at her for a moment, before turning and closing the door.  

“You are going to demand an annulment, Steve,” she continued.  When he didn’t respond, she kept pushing.  “Did you hear me?  An annulment.  We are ending this marriage.”

He took a deep breath and released it slowly.  “Can I set my pack down before you start yelling at me?” he asked quietly.

Peggy glowered at him, crossing her arms over her chest.  He looked terrible.  “What happened to you?” she asked, as he dropped the pack to the floor and sat down heavily in one of the kitchen chairs.  

“I sort of got ... blown up,” he said.  He slumped in the chair.  He really did look awful.  

Peggy took the several steps to him.  She touched his chin lightly and urged him to lean his head back so she could get a better look at him.  It looked like the entire left side of his face was a healing bruise.  It extended down his neck and then beneath his jacket.  “Are you okay?”

He shrugged.  “It was a lot worse yesterday.”

She frowned, gentling.  “When did this happen?”

“Three days ago,” he said, glancing up at her.

She ran her fingers through his hair and his eyes fluttered shut.  He was exhausted.  This is what Erskine had done for him.  Three days ago he in an explosion and now he was sitting in the kitchen with a bad bruise, looking worse for the wear.

She sighed, all the fight going out of her.  “Go take a shower.”

He didn’t argue.  He stood up and shrugged out of his coat and went straight for the bathroom.  She stood in the kitchen for several moments.  She looked at his coat.  It wasn’t the same one he’d had when he left.  She wondered what happened to the old one.  Was it destroyed in the explosion?  Jesus.

She could hear the water running in the shower.  She knocked once and opened the door a bit.  “Are you hungry?  Do you want me to order food?”

“Too tired to eat.”

She frowned, closing the door.  She looked at the bed.  She wasn’t giving up on the annulment.  They needed to end this ... whatever it was between them.  She could take one of the pillows and a spare blanket out of the closet and sleep on the couch.  But she really didn’t want to be that far away in case he needed anything.

He finally stepped out of the bathroom, towel over his head.  She didn’t miss how pink the skin was on the left side of his chest and down his side.  It looked new.  Very new.

Steve wandered into the bedroom and sat down heavily on the bed.  He glanced over at the lamp and table she’d moved, but didn’t say anything.  Dropping the towel on the floor, he climbed into bed without even bothering with shorts.

All the lights were still on, but he was out.  She walked over and stood next to the side of the bed for several long moments.  Gently, she ran the backs of her fingers across his cheek.  “Can I do something to help you?”

“‘M fine,” he mumbled.

Frowning, Peggy picked up the wet towel and then turned off lights.  Again, she considered the couch, but decided against it.  She eventually climbed into bed.  Steve was solidly out.  She lay there in the dark, listening to him breathe.  How often had he done this, come home, half dead, and crawled into bed with no one to care about him?   

She scooted closer to him, curling up against the warmth of his body.

 

* * *

 

Peggy woke to kisses and she pressed against Steve gladly, raking her nails through his hair.  Together, they got rid of her nightgown and panties.  “I guess you’re feeling better.”

He kissed along her neck, one of his hands cupping her breast.  “Mmm hmmm.”  His fingers found her, parted her easily.  She hissed through her teeth, moving to give him better access.  He stroked her, nipping along her jaw.  

“Did you miss me?” she asked.

“You’re the one who said actions speak.”  He pressed his hips against her and she could feel how much he wanted her.

As angry as she had been at him, she had also missed him so much.  The taste of his kisses against her lips, the feel of his body against hers.  How close did she come to losing him on this mission?  He had been grievously wounded.  He could have died, alone, on the other end of the galaxy.  

She nipped at his lips, groaning his name.

“Come for me, Peggy,” he whispered.

She did, her hips arching against his hand as she bit back a moan.  

She lay there, trying to catch her breath, he rolled away, looking for something.  A condom, she assumed, from the sound.  He lay on his back, rolling it on.  

“Steve, we need to annul this marriage,” she said, as he gathered her close.

He made a noncommittal noise.

“Are you listening?”

He pulled her on top of him.  “Yeah.”

“So you’ll request an annulment,” she said, looking down at him.  She braced her palms against his chest, pushing herself up.

He looked up and met her gaze.  “What?  No.”

“Steve,” she started, but he lifted her hips and slowly lowered her down on him.  She groaned, arching her back as she took him deeper.  She finally came to rest, breathing hard, with her hips against his.  “Why not?” she managed.

He used his grip on her hips to lift her, moving her on him.  “I like being married to you.”

She gave up trying to argue with him.  She had other priorities.  She moved on him languidly, trying to savor the feeling of having him.  There was a sheen of perspiration on his skin and in the dim morning light, she could still see the fading bruise and new skin.  

She could have lost him.

He moved his fingers, stroking her as she rose and fell on him.  It caused her breath to catch and she tightened around him, making him groan.  “Missed you,” he said gruffly.

She sat back on him, taking one of his hands, guiding it to her breast as his other hand continued to tease her.  “Did you think about me?” she asked.

He nodded, his jaw clenched tight.

“How did you imagine me?” she asked.

He nodded again.  “Like this.”

“On top of you?” she teased, rolling her hips as she tightened around him again.

“Yes,” he managed hoarsely.

“Did you touch yourself while you were thinking about me?”

He looked up at her, his expression both pained and excited.  Love words said in the close darkness were one thing.  This was a bright morning, with sunlight streaming through the window.  

“Yes,” he finally said, his voice a low rasp.

She closed her eyes, shivering around him, lost in sensation.  She was aware of his hands on her hips now, moving her faster, his own breath hissing through his teeth before she collapsed forward on him.

Steve had to get up and dispose of the condom, but he hurried back, curling around her.  They laid together in the tangled sheets for a long time, fingers trailing over skin, soft kisses.

Eventually Peggy pulled away.  She glanced over at him and sat up.  Hugging her knees up to her chest, she looked down at him.  “Pierce gave me to you as a punishment, Steve,” she said wearily.

He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.

“Please, Steve, be reasonable,” she pled.  “Just cut your losses.  Tell them - ” she stopped, laughing mirthlessly.  “Fuck.  Tell them whatever you want.  That I’m a traitor to the Empire.  That I want nothing more than Alexander Pierce’s dead body at my feet.  It would all be true.”

“No,” he said firmly.

She looked at him, astounded.  “You knew,” she said.  “You knew they gave me to you because they wanted you to fail.”

He shrugged.  “Yeah, I knew.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, watching him.  “And you did it anyway, knowing it was a losing proposition.  Isn’t that exactly what you were fighting against in your report on Sorros?”

He looked over at her, frowning.  

“You have your Empire, Steve,” she said seriously.  “Don’t throw it away for me.”

He sat up, facing her, jaw tight.  “Why do you assume that the Empire means more to me than you do?”

Peggy had no idea what to say to that.  Luckily, she was spared having to answer by the phone.  Steve gave her a final, hard look and rose to answer it.  

 

* * *

 

It was Barnes on the phone.  Steve made plans for that evening.  He looked a lot better than he had the previous night, but he was still on the mend.  He was starving, so they went out and grabbed breakfast before her class.

Peggy already knew that Steve didn’t like fighting, at least not with her.  But she underestimated just how mulishly stubborn he could be when he wanted.  She brought up the subject of annulment several more times and each time he flatly refused.

The final time was as they were heading out the door to meet Natasha and Barnes. Steve backed her against the wall next to the door, kissing her until she was breathless.  “You’re my wife, Peggy,” he said, with quiet resolve.  “I’m not leaving you.”

Peggy was both irritated as hell, and selfishly happy that he was so vehement.  She knew it was ridiculous to trust him.  He was the Empire’s golden boy.  But she was learning, first hand, just how different the Empire’s reality was from its propaganda.

When they arrived at Barnes’ place, Steve disappeared with Barnes into the backyard.  Apparently they were grilling.  To date, Peggy hadn’t seen any evidence that Steve or Barnes could cook anything more complicated than cereal, or delivery pizza, so she was curious to see what was going to happen.

Natasha and Peggy sat in the kitchen, with a bottle of wine.  Or three.  

They were well into the second bottle when Natasha said conversationally, “I thought you were going to end things with Rogers.”

“Steve refused.”

Natasha nodded, a small smile curving her lips.

“What?” Peggy snapped.

Natasha shrugged.  “I’m just thrilled you’ve found someone who can drive you as nuts as you drive me most of the time.”

“This isn’t funny,” Peggy said.  “He’s throwing away his life on this.”

“Yeah, well, maybe that’s his choice,” Natasha said, leaning back in her chair.  “Maybe he doesn’t think he’s throwing it away.”

Peggy frowned and took another drink of her wine.  “My tracker was disabled.”  Natasha looked at her, eyes wide, but didn’t say anything.  “I don’t know if it was a mistake or not, but it’s done.  Happened at my last health check.”

Natasha nodded.  “Does Rogers know?”

Peggy shook her head.  

“So how’s the sex?” 

Peggy arched an eyebrow.  “Why?”

“For someone hell bent on ending a relationship, you seem less upset than I’d expect that it isn’t happening.  Also, you’re still here, when you could have made a run for it.  Makes me think maybe you found a reason to stay.”  She paused, looking Peggy up and down.  “I already know you don’t have a heart, so I figure maybe the sex is good.”

Peggy took another drink of wine. “What about Barnes?  You two seem to be getting along well.”

Natasha nodded.  “We have more in common than you might think.”

“What does that mean?”

Natasha shrugged.  “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours, but if you’re not sharing, neither am I.”

Peggy rolled her eyes, but remained silent.

Natasha took another drink.  “James says he’s never seen Rogers like this with anyone.  Whatever that means.”

Peggy already knew as much, but it didn’t stop the warm sensation of satisfaction she felt.  She suspected Steve’s sense of duty was strong enough to compel him into a marriage he didn’t want.  However, she was more and more certain that hadn’t been the case.  He’d wanted her, even if his reasoning was misguided.

And she wanted him too.  

She pushed herself to her feet.  She wandered through the house to the back door.  Steve and Barnes were on the porch, beers in hand, standing around a grill.  Steve saw her through the screen.  She backed into the hallway, watching as he opened the screen door and then closed it behind himself.  

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded, reaching for his hand.  She pulled him down the hall to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind them.

“What’s going on?” he asked, clearly concerned.

She shook her head, pushing up on tiptoe to kiss him.  His arms immediately went around her waist, holding her to him as he returned the kiss.  She stroked him through his trousers and he groaned, backing her against the door.  She sucked his bottom lip into her mouth, biting down gently on it.

“Peggy,” he hissed.

She flipped their positions, pushing him back against the door as her hands went to the fly of his trousers.  His eyes fluttered shut and he pressed his head back against the door.  “What’re you doing?” he whispered.

She pushed the material down his hips and took him in hand, stroking him.  Slowly, she lowered herself to her knees.  His eyes shot open and he looked down at her, dazed.

She smiled up at him, before leaning forward and licking the underside of his cock from root to tip.

“ _ Fuck, _ ” he hissed.

“Did you imagine this while you were gone?” she asked him coyly, continuing to stroke him with one hand.

He breathed out a harsh breath and gave her a sharp nod.

She smiled and took him into her mouth.  Not all of him, but enough, and her hands continued to work him over, stroking and cupping.  For a long time, the only sound was their breathing.

He tried to pull away, but she redoubled her efforts and was rewarded accordingly.  Steve sagged against the bathroom door as she buttoned him back up.

She finally took his hand and tugged him away from the door so they could leave, but he pulled her close, kissing her breathless.  Then he nuzzled into the space beneath her ear, holding her.  She threaded her fingers through his hair, touching him gently.

She finally pulled away and he let her go.  They both were a little sheepish when they exited the bathroom.  Steve gave her another hard kiss before he walked back out to the porch.  

The door hadn’t even swung shut when Barnes bellowed, “If you two jerks made a mess in my bathroom, you’re going to clean it up.”

 

* * *

 

By the time Steve and Barnes managed to cook any food, Peggy and Natasha were lit.  The food was surprisingly good.  Nothing fancy.  Grilled meat and some vegetables.  But it was more than Peggy expected.

They were all sitting around Barnes’ living room, Peggy curled against Steve on the couch.  Barnes and Natasha sat in chairs next to each other, Natasha’s feet in Barnes’ lap.  Peggy was sobering up, but everything was still warm and cozy.  Steve’s arm was wrapped possessively around her waist and she liked it a lot more than she knew she should.

There was a knock at the door and Barnes got up to answer it.  When he returned, there were four people with him.  Friends from the neighborhood, apparently.  All of whom knew Steve as well.  Scott, Hope, and Sam seemed nice enough.  But Peggy didn’t like Lorraine, who had the nerve to lean over and give Steve a hug while Peggy was practically sitting in his lap.

Lorraine’s mood cooled considerably after Steve introduced Peggy as his wife.  Peggy was certain to give her a poison sweet smile.  But as she sat there, Peggy started to wonder what the designation really meant to Steve.  He’d said he liked being married to her, that he wasn’t going to leave her.  But what did it mean to him to have a wife?

When Natasha started yawning loudly, Barnes finally got the hint and started kicking everyone out.  

Steve and Peggy headed for the train stop, but Peggy tugged Steve to a halt on the darkened sidewalk.  “You grew up here?”

He nodded.  “Around here, yeah.  A few blocks.”

“Show me.”

Steve took her hand and they walked over a couple of blocks, to a street lined with apartment buildings.  They were only a couple of stories tall.  A far cry from the kind of highrise where Steve lived now.  It was obvious the bulk of the buildings had been quickly constructed, and not well maintained over the years.

“This looks like it could be a pretty rough neighborhood for a little kid,” Peggy said.

Steve shrugged.  “It’s loads better now than it was.  The place used to be where people washed up.  They all came to the Empire looking for opportunity and all they found was this.  So many people, so few jobs.  People were starving.  There was a lot of crime, a lot of sickness.  Sometimes when plagues would sweep through, they’d quarantine the whole neighborhood.”

“Plagues?”

“Mild by today’s standards,” he said.  “It was before the Empire invested so much R&D into biowarfare.  Sickness, fevers.  They were brutal, but nothing like the engineered horrors we have today.  The mortality rate wasn’t high enough for the Empire to deem it necessary to ‘sanitize’ the neighborhood.”

“Jesus,” Peggy swore.  

“My father died when my mother was still pregnant.  She raised me here.  After she died, I lived here for a couple of years.  When I couldn’t afford that, I moved in with Buck.”

Peggy wrapped her arms around his waist.   “It must have been hard.”

He shrugged, and then laughed self-deprecatingly.  “I got beat up in that alley.”  He turned.  “And that parking lot.”  He turned again.  “Behind that diner.”

She shook her head.  “Why didn’t you run away?”

He frowned.  “You start running, they never let you stop.”

Peggy looked at him.  It seemed natural enough, now, for him to say that.  But he hadn’t been Steve Rogers, hero of the Empire.  He’d been a fatherless boy, sickly and small, with too much heart to run away from a fight he believed in.  She ducked her head and looked away, blinking quickly.

The trip back to the apartment was quiet. When they got into bed, Peggy pulled Steve close.  Despite all their earlier provocation, there were no lewd words, no actions meant to shock or titillate.  She loved him, with her body, if not her heart, and offered him whatever dubious comfort she could.  

She fell asleep with him wrapped around her.

  
**End Chapter**


	5. Chapter 5

Steve walked Peggy to class.  She debated telling him about the tracker.  Actually, she knew she should tell him about the tracker.  But she didn’t.  She wasn’t sure why.  Steve was a good man.  Last night had shaken her, made her feel ... something.

She had to get herself in check.  She wasn’t going to be able to build a life with him.  Whatever they had ... it was going to fall apart, eventually.  And the less he knew, the safer he’d be.

Integration class was more of the same infuriating subject matter.  Gilmore Hodge still made her blood boil every time he opened his mouth.  

There was one difference this day, however.  There was someone new lurking at the back of the room.  He was military, Peggy would have bet her life on it.  He was older, but not old.  Wiry build.  Dark hair.  He didn’t strike her as Imperial material.  More likely he was a merc, loyal to the highest bidder.  And she knew it wasn’t a coincidence that he was there.

Just before class was over, he slipped her a piece of paper.  She looked over at him, frowning.

“Name’s Rumlow,” he said.  He nodded to the note.  “You might find that interesting.”  He left, through a side door that would allow him to avoid Steve.

Peggy waited until Rumlow left and then glanced at the note.  There was an address and a time - tomorrow evening.  She put the note in her pocket and walked outside where Steve was waiting.

They grabbed lunch.  As usual, Steve was thoughtful.  And trusting.  Surprisingly funny.

It put Peggy in a terrible mood.  Her tracker, by itself, might have simply been a mistake.  But now, with this merc wanting a meeting, Peggy knew something was up.  And it probably wasn’t anything that was going to be a benefit to Steve.

Peggy had decided she was going to tell Steve everything.  The tracker, Rumlow, and the note.  At the very least, she owed Steve the truth.  What he did with it was up to him.

But when they got back to the apartment, the phone was ringing.  She knew immediately it was another job.  Steve looked at her and frowned.  “It should only be a day or two.”

She felt ridiculous getting upset, but she was upset.  “Why the hell did they force us to get married if they’re going to keep shipping you out?”

He shrugged at a loss.  “I don’t know,” he said quietly.  He crossed the room to her and tugged lightly at the belt loop of her jeans.  “I’m sorry.”

She huffed and rolled her eyes.  “It’s fine.  I’ll be fine.  Just don’t get blown up this time.”

He pressed a kiss to her jaw, pulling her close.

“You leave tomorrow?” she asked.

“Tonight,” he said apologetically.  “But I have a few hours.”

She looked at him from beneath her lashes.  “And how do you think we can occupy our time for a few hours?”

His hands worked their way under the hem of her shirt and tickled along her spine.  “I think I owe you for the show yesterday in Bucky’s bathroom.”  Despite herself, she laughed, curling closer to him.  “Come on,” he said.  “You’re good at giving orders.  Come show me what you like.”

 

* * *

 

The first thing Peggy thought of when she opened her eyes the next morning was that she’d never told Steve about the tracker, or Rumlow.  She sighed, flopping over onto her stomach.  She had fully intended to tell Steve, but she got distracted.  And by the time she remembered, he was hurrying out the door so he didn’t miss his transport. 

So, she hadn’t told him.

Shit.

Peggy got out of bed, dressed, downed some coffee, and went to class.  Rumlow wasn’t there, but she hadn’t expected him to be there.  It was simply too much of a coincidence that Steve was called away again, at the same time she was given the note, and was supposed to rendezvous with a merc.

Whatever Rumlow was up to, it wasn’t good for her or Steve.  Peggy suspected Pierce was behind it.  He was the most obvious candidate.  But if he was using mercs, then it was offbook.  And Peggy was dying to know why the Imperial Vizier was running offbook ops on the Imperial homeworld.  Surely the more information she could give to Steve when he got home, the better positioned they would be.

Also, she was bored.

Natasha called and invited Peggy over for dinner.  Peggy declined.  She knew that Natasha suspected something was up, and she promised to fill her in the next time she saw her.

As the time for the rendezvous approached, Peggy prepared.  Steve had never made a secret of where he kept his weapons.  So, she had a pistol at the small of her back and a knife in her boot.  The evenings were starting to get cooler, so she shrugged into one of Steve’s jackets, which was far too large for her.  It also smelled like him, which was distracting.

The rendezvous was in an open air shopping district.  It was early evening, but there were plenty of shops and restaurants open and there was a good amount of foot traffic.  Peggy found Rumlow sitting at a small table on a restaurant patio.  

He looked up as she joined him.  “You showed up,” he said with a smile.

“You doubted it?” she asked, taking a seat.

He shrugged.  “Let’s just say I’m glad you have the balls.”

Peggy frowned at him, watching him expectantly.

Carefully, Rumlow removed a folder and slid it across the table to her.

“What is this?”

He shrugged again.  “Read it.  You might find it enlightening, especially given your recent marriage.  Congratulations, by the way.”  With that, he pushed himself to his feet and disappeared into the crowd.

Peggy sat at the table for a long time, staring at the envelope.  She waited for Imperial security forces to swarm in.  Nothing happened.  Finally, she picked up the folder and left.

She thought about doubling back, but they already knew who she was and where she lived.  There would be no point.  She ducked into a coffee shop and found a quiet, dark corner.  She leafed through the documents, her insides running cold as she read through the files.

Stuffing the files back in the folder, she hurried back toward the apartment.  She barely made it a block before was stopped by a patrol.  They asked for her identification and name.  She gave them both.  As they were checking it over, Peggy’s hand went to gun at the small of her back.

The patrolman looked at her.  “According to the records, you’re supposed to be on restrictions,” he said.  Peggy didn’t respond.  He clicked on a flashlight, shining it in her face.  “What are you doing out here alone?”

Peggy’s hand slipped around the grip of the pistol.

“She’s with me.”

Peggy’s head snapped to the side and she looked at Barnes, who was followed closely by Natasha.  Barnes approached the officer, with his own identification in hand.  “She’s has a special permit.  She can be out as long as she’s with me.”

The patrolman was obviously skeptical, but he checked the records, which backed up Barnes’ explanation.  He nodded and released Peggy to Barnes.

As the patrolman walked away, Barnes gave Peggy a hard look.  “Steve’s home,” he said quietly.  “He called me looking for you.  Nat’s the one who managed to track you down.”  He stepped closer, but Peggy refused to meet his eyes.  “You’re welcome,” he said.

 

* * *

 

When they got the apartment, Steve was there.  The confusion on his features made Peggy feel like shit.  Steve looked at Barnes.  “I thought you said she wasn’t with you.”

“She wasn’t with me,” Barnes replied, clearly debating how much to tell Steve himself, and how much to leave up to Peggy.  “After you said she wasn’t with you, Nat suggested that she and I go take a look.  We found Peggy right after she’d been picked up by one of the patrol runs.  They were seconds from dragging her in.” 

Peggy didn’t want to start anything between Steve and his best friend.  She took a deep breath and set the folder on the counter.  “They disabled my tracker.”

“Who?” Steve asked, brow furrowed.  “When?”

“One of the medics,” she said.  “Last week when you were offworld.  I went in for my blood draw and they disabled the tracker.”

Steve frowned, clearly confused.  “So where were you tonight?”

“Meeting with a man who showed up at my integration class yesterday,” she replied.  “His name was Rumlow.  Do you know him?”

She could see Steve’s jaw tighten, and she heard Barnes curse under his breath.  “Yeah,” Steve said, stepping closer to her.  “I know him.  You met with him.  Tonight?”

She nodded.  “He gave me this file.”  She picked up the folder and held it out to Steve.

He looked at it, and then to her.  When he didn’t take it, she set it on the counter.  “What is it?”  

Barnes picked the folder up off the counter and started leafing through it.  He cursed again.

“Lies,” Peggy said flatly, meeting Steve’s gaze.  “A recap of the Siege of Sorros where Pierce was the one who advocated for caution and you were the one who wanted the invasion.”

His brow furrowed.  She could see his jaw muscles standing out.  

“None of this is true,” Barnes said flatly.  “Steve never backed the invasion.”

She nodded calmly, never taking her eyes off Steve.  “I know.”

He looked at her.  “How do you know?”

“I saw the real files,” she said.  “I read your report, the assessment of Sorros.  The plan that advocated diplomatic relations and nothing more.  Natasha showed them to me last week.  It’s how I knew you went behind Pierce’s back to Stark.”

Steve frowned at her, and then looked over at Barnes.

For his part, Barnes was gaping at Natasha.  “You showed her?”

Natasha shrugged.  “Of course.”

Steve took a deep breath and his frown deepened.  “Peggy, I know you can handle yourself, but Rumlow is a sadistic bastard.”

She nodded.  “A sadistic bastard who’s working for Alexander Pierce.”

Steve dragged his hand through his hair and paced a tight circle in the kitchen.  He finally looked back at her, his expression taut.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She opened her mouth and then closed it again.  

“That’s our cue,” Barnes said, ushering Natasha to the door.  As soon as it closed, the apartment seemed unnaturally quiet.

“I fully intended to tell you,” Peggy said, unable to look at Steve.

“But you didn’t,” he countered.

She shrugged, feeling guilty and upset.  “I’m telling you now.”

“What if I hadn’t called Buck?” he said quietly.  “What if they hadn’t found you before that patrol hauled you back to central booking?”  He shook his head.  “I can call in favors, Peggy, but there are limits to how much even I can protect you.”

“I never asked for your protection,” she snapped, her guilt morphing into anger.

He nodded, looking very tired and more than a little sad.  “No,” he said.  “You didn’t.  But I asked for a partner, and you accepted.”

Again, she opened her mouth to reply, but closed it.  

He seemed hurt, but not surprised.  He shook his head.  “Look, it was a long op.  I’m going to hit the shower and then crash.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy was in bed, facing the wall when Steve got out of the shower.  She knew he was standing in the doorway, looking at her.

“I’m going to take the couch,” he said quietly.  He stood there, waiting, and when she didn’t say anything, he finally turned away.  She heard him get the extra blanket out of the closet.  Then he had to come back in and grab his pillow.

Finally, he turned out all the lights and settled on the couch.

Peggy laid in their bed, knowing, without a doubt, that this was for the best.  She’d somehow fallen into the trap of acting as if this was a real marriage.  It wasn’t.  It was a punishment, nothing more.  It was an arrangement meant to hurt and humiliate both her and Steve.

They weren’t partners.  They weren’t even really friends.  Peggy wasn’t sure why she kept pushing the physical aspect of their involvement.  At this point, it wasn’t going to make anything easier.  

As much as part of her wanted to be completely forthright with him, she simply couldn’t.  Steve was an Imperial, a soldier, like the ones who had taken her home.  The could never be anything real between them.

 

* * *

 

When Peggy woke, Steve was already up.  As much as she understood the change in their relationship was for the best, she hated it.  She knew that her relationship with Steve was a disaster waiting to happen.  But that knowledge did nothing to stop her from wanting him.

She didn’t like that she wanted a man sworn to the Empire, but she couldn’t deny it.  Somehow she’d opened a part of herself up to him.  It was a rookie mistake.  One that Sorros couldn’t afford.

By the time she was finished in the shower, Peggy was in an abysmal mood.  She poured herself a cup of coffee and looked at Steve.  “It’s your bed,” she said.  “I can take the couch.  There’s no need for you to be put out on my account.”

He looked at her and frowned.  “I’m sorry, Peggy,” he said evenly.  “For everything.  I thought I could do this, but I can’t.”

She sighed in relief.  “So you’ll request the annulment then?”

He shook his head. “No.”  He held up his hand, trying to forestall her reply.  “They’ll kill you if I annul the marriage.  No formal charges.  No trial.  No nothing. They’ll take you to the detention center and put a bullet behind your right ear.”  

She wrapped both of her hands around her coffee cup, knowing his words were true.

He took a deep breath.  “I’m not going to end the marriage.  But I can’t continue to live with you as man and wife.  I thought I could do it, but I don’t think I can.”

She nodded.  “You’re a good man.”

He snorted.  “If I was a good man, I would have found a way to help you without forcing you into a marriage you never wanted.”

She looked at him, suddenly angry.  “I chose it,” she snapped.  “I accepted your proposal.”

“To avoid death,” he said flatly.  “It was coercion at best, and rape at worst.”

She gaped at him.  “What are you talking about?”

He wouldn’t look at her.  “I’m sorry,” he said again.  “Please trust that I’ll do whatever I can to help you.  No strings attached.”

She had no idea what to say, no idea what to do.  Everything felt so twisted in her mind - and her heart.  

“We should go,” he said.  “You’re going to be late for class.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy moved to the couch.  Steve Rogers could be a stubborn son of a bitch, but he’d definitely met his match in Peggy Carter.  

In what Peggy thought to be a profound stroke of irony - or maybe someone was just actively screwing with them - Steve wasn’t called up again.  He was around.  Always.  Peggy would have welcomed another week, alone, to take stock of herself.  But it didn’t happen.  Steve was always with her - in the bedroom now, rather than on the couch - but still constantly underfoot.

He was so goddamn polite it made her want to scream.  She knew that he truly regretted his compliance with their conscripted pairing.  But the fact that he’d dared refer to the consummation of their marriage as rape was enough to make her blood boil.  After everything that happened - everything  _ she _ did - he was willing to take the blame for all of it.

Collectively, Steve and Peggy found every excuse they could to be out of the house.  Peggy made it to her classes like clockwork.  And they spent a lot of time with Barnes and Natasha, though it was only very rarely the four of them together.  Now, it was almost always Peggy and Natasha in one room, and Steve and Barnes somewhere else.  Everyone drank too much.  

At least Barnes and Natasha were still getting laid.  Peggy suspected it might even be more than that, but Natasha wasn’t talking.

Peggy had another health check.  The pregnancy test came back negative, which didn’t shock her, considering how much sex she and Steve weren’t having.  And when they had sex, weeks ago, they’d used condoms.  Barring immaculate conception, she and Steve weren’t making any new Imperial citizens.

The distance from Steve did give Peggy more of an opportunity to take stock of her surroundings.  She was more than a little shamed at how much she hadn’t noticed in her new home.  There was one night they were supposed to go to Barnes’ place, but the trains weren’t running.  Steve didn’t seem to think that was odd, but Peggy pressed him on it.  

He explained that there were pockets of unrest around the sprawling city.  Riots.  The government did everything they could to hush them up and shut them down.  

“Riots?” Peggy asked, truly shocked.  “On the Imperial homeworld?”

Steve just shrugged, clearly not surprised by the situation.  “There’s always been unrest,” he said.  “I can remember even when I was little, the neighborhood was locked down a lot.  People were rounded up.  Never seen again.  It happens.  It’s always happened.  It’s probably worse now though.”

Peggy shook her head.  “The picture I was always given of the Empire was that it was monolithic.  Everyone in their place.”

Steve sat down in one of the kitchen chairs.  “That’s definitely what they’d like you to think.”

“Who is ‘they’?” she pressed.

“Stark.  Stane,” Steve said.  “Pierce.  Carson.  The people at the top.  The people who have the most to lose from the unrest.”  He shrugged.  “I’ve seen so many worlds, from one end of the galaxy to another.  It’s always something.  The Imperial system works more often than not.  Or at least it did.  It was never perfect.  But after Howard Stark started living like a recluse, Obadiah Stane took over.”  He shook his head.

Peggy crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back against the kitchen counters.  “How did Stane amass so much power?  I thought Stark had a son.”

“Yeah,” Steve said.  “Tony.  Heir apparent.  Howard’s only living child.  He went missing a few years ago, shortly before Howard retreated from the public.  Presumed dead.”

Peggy narrowed her eyes.  “Presumed.”

Steve nodded.  “That’s the story.”

Peggy moved to the table and took a seat next to Steve.  “What really happened?”

Steve took a breath.  “Who knows.  I’ve heard things.  All word of mouth.  When Tony Stark went missing, we combed the entire section, and there was never so much as a trace.”  He sighed.  “I think it’s what spurred the latest surge of expansionism.”

“So Sorros can thank Tony Stark’s disappearance for our assimilation?”

Steve nodded.  “There’s more.  Rumor is that Tony Stark isn’t dead.  They say he was hurt badly, taken prisoner, and given a first hand taste of what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the Empire’s welcoming party.  Story goes that it was enough of a perspective shift for him to really question what the Empire was doing.”

“I take it that didn’t go over well with his father or Stane.”

Steve laughed mirthlessly.  “From what I hear, Stane decided it would be easier to make the rumors true - to get rid of Tony Stark once and for all.  I have no idea if Howard Stark even knows.”  He shook his head, his expression bleak.  “If I’d had any idea that Stane was trying to secure his hold on the Empire, I never would have gone to Stark about Sorros.”

Peggy frowned.  “Steve, what happened on Sorros isn’t your fault.”

He shrugged.  “I didn’t do you any favors.  Stane was hell bent on sealing his grip on the leadership of the Empire by crushing all opposition.  All I did was bring Sorros to his attention.  If I’d kept my mouth shut, it might have gone a lot easier on you.”

Peggy took a deep breath.  “You were trying to help.  You risked your own reputation to speak up for a world that meant nothing to you.”

“For all the good it did.”

Peggy arched an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.  She realized that what Steve had done probably hadn’t helped, but she knew, in her heart, that nothing could have spared Sorros from Pierce and Stane.

“What was the invasion like?” he asked.  When she looked at him, he continued, “I’ve seen plenty of Imperial invasions, but only from the Imperial side.  I want to know what happened to you.”

Peggy opened her mouth and then closed it again.  She honestly had no idea where to even start.  She wasn’t sure she could even begin to do it justice.

Seeming to understand some of her hesitation, Steve said, “I told you what it was like for me, growing up here.  What was Sorros before the Empire got its claws in you?”

“Quiet,” she said.  “But prosperous.  The population was small, but highly educated, largely affluent.”

“Your family?  Personally?”

“My father was an academic, a researcher,” she said.  “My mother was a politician.  My elder brother, Michael, took after my mother.  My sister, Sharon, was still living at home when the wars started.”

Steve nodded and she wondered how much of this he already knew.  Surely it was in her bio, somewhere.  “How did you end up in the military?” he asked.  “I know you were part of it before the invasion began.”

She shrugged.  “Natural affinity, I suppose.  On Sorros, a military career fit nicely with my skillsets and aptitudes.  We weren’t a militaristic society.  But we were a practical people.  We understood the need for a military.”

“You took care of people.”

“I defended my home.”

“Indeed,” he said solemnly.  “Imperial military estimates calculated it would take two months to subdue Sorros.  You held out for nearly three years.”

She nodded.  “I wonder if we shouldn’t have surrendered,” she said quietly.  “We lost so many.”

Steve watched her, his expression pained.  “Your family?”

She laughed bitterly.  “Family.  Friends.  Everyone.”  She shook her head.  “My father may still be alive.  I don’t know.  My brother was killed in the second wave.  My mother was executed when the Empire took the capital.  I have no idea about my sister.  She was fighting with a division under the command of another general.  I never received any official word on her.”

“Pierce deemed Sorros a level five assimilation before the Empire ever moved into your sector,” Steve said seriously.  “If you’d surrendered, you would have lost more.  Holding out for as long as you did saved millions, Peggy.”

Peggy looked at him, both shocked, and somehow relieved.  She nodded.  “Some managed to survive.  I know the Empire kept the experts, and the labor.  The Empire wants Sorros for her natural resources.  But I believe other factions survived as well.”

Steve watched her for a long moment.  “You mean your fellow fighters.”

She nodded.  “I saw the body counts, the rosters.  There were people who got away.  And a lot more unaccounted for.  I hope they survived as well.”

Steve looked toward the window and she knew he was thinking beyond that, to the trainstop.  To the riots.  “Would they dare come here?”

“I hope so,” she said firmly.

He looked at her, but she couldn’t read his expression.

* * *

 

Peggy had no idea if Barnes had always been the social butterfly, or if he was just so bored he had no idea what else to do with himself.  Steve and Peggy were invited to yet another party.  It was in full swing by the time they got there.  Some of the faces Peggy already knew; Sam, Scott, Hope, Tom and Lorraine.  It seemed like Steve knew a lot of the other guests.  He introduced her to Jessica, Trish and Malcolm.  And then apparently a couple of Barnes’ cousins, Frankie and Joe.

Natasha made the occasional introduction as the night wore on, but Peggy wasn’t terribly interested.  Steve was on the back deck with Barnes and Sam.  And Lorraine, who seemed to be wherever Steve was, though Steve did not appear to notice.

“You can go out there, you know,” Natasha said blandly.

“Why would I go out there?”  Peggy scoffed.  “It’s cold outside.”

Natasha just arched an eyebrow.

Peggy absolutely did want to go out there.  And push Lorraine over the railing.  It wasn’t a long fall.  She’d probably live.  But that would serve no purpose but to embarrass them both.  Everyone at the party knew her marriage to Steve had been a forced pairing.  It wasn’t like anybody expected them to actually care about one another.  

 

* * *

 

It was near midnight when Peggy looked across the room and stopped dead in her tracks.  Natasha followed her line of sight and smiled gently.  “I didn’t want to ruin the surprise,” she said.

Sharon crossed the room with purpose, opening her arms and hugging Peggy tightly.  It was all Peggy could do to hold onto her.  Peggy was laughing and crying as she pulled back.  Sharon’s cheeks were wet too.  Then out of nowhere, Thor and Sif enveloped both of them in hugs.  

Peggy hadn’t been so relieved, or happy, in weeks.  She’d hoped and prayed, that Sharon was alive, but she’d had no idea, until now.  It was like she could finally release a breath she hadn’t even known she was holding.  Sharon was alive.  Her sister was alive.

Thor hooked a well muscled arm around Peggy’s waist and pulled her close, pressing a loud, smacking kiss to her cheek.

Peggy looked past Thor and saw Steve standing in the doorway, his jaw tight.  Peggy wiped impatiently at the tears on her cheeks and crossed the room to Steve.  She took his hand and tugged him closer to the group.  

The introductions were a bit awkward.  Steve greeted Sharon with visible relief, and he seemed truly happy that Peggy had been reunited with her sister.  Sharon didn’t seem to know what to think of Steve.  She kept looking to Peggy for clues, but Peggy kept her expression neutral.

Sif and Thor were another matter entirely.  They were openly suspicious of Steve.  And it was clear that Steve understood they were from Sorros.  With him standing there, the conversation was awkward.  He finally excused himself, giving Peggy a tight smile.

Sif looked at Steve’s retreating form.  “Isn’t he one of Pierce’s lapdogs?”

Peggy frowned.  “No.  He’s Imperial military, but he isn’t allied with Pierce.”

A grin spread across Thor’s face and he chucked Peggy on the shoulder.  “Looks like Carter’s found a friend.”

She glowered at Thor.  “He is my husband, by Imperial edict.”

Thor just smiled broadly and winked at her, nodding.

Sif shrugged.  “At least he’s better looking than the last one.”

“God, isn’t that the truth,” Sharon said solemnly.  “Can he read?  That would be a step up as well.”

“Jack could read,” Peggy snapped.

Natasha snorted.

 

* * *

 

On the train on the way home, Peggy was exhausted, but in a good way.  She was elated, relieved, grateful.  Sharon was okay.  She made it out.  She was alive, and safe.  Knowing that other fighters, like Sif and Thor, made it out alive, seemed to make it all the more worthwhile to Peggy.  There was a payoff to all the weeks she’d played along.

Peggy knew there were more people from Sorros in the city.  The party hadn’t been the time, or the place, to speak openly.  But it was clear that Thor and Sif were far from idle.  Peggy felt hopeful, in a way she hadn’t in so long.

Peggy leaned against Steve, resting her head on his shoulder.  He put his arm around her shoulders and she cuddled against him for warmth.  After the trainstop, he steered her toward the apartment building, his arm wrapped around her waist.  On the elevator, she nearly fell asleep standing up, leaning against him.

“Come on, Peggy,” he said, walking her to the apartment door.

She made a soft, plaintive sound, but followed, stumbling along.

Inside the apartment, she changed and then washed her face and brushed her teeth.  Steve was leaning against the kitchen counter when she exited the bathroom.  He’d stripped down to his undershirt and a pair of pajama pants.  Goddamn, he was handsome.

“Lorraine certainly seemed thrilled to see you tonight,” Peggy said, baiting him.

He looked at her.  “Yeah,” he agreed softly.  “About as thrilled as Thor was to see you.”

Peggy frowned at him, slowly crossing the kitchen to him.  She leaned into him, tracing over his collarbone with her lacquered nail.  “Lorraine wants you.”

He shrugged, rolling his eyes.

“What?” Peggy pressed.  “She does.”

“Lorraine’s a flirt,” Steve said.

Peggy took half a step back from him, arching an eyebrow.  “I know flirting, Steve.  That wasn’t flirting.  It was an invitation.”

He shook his head.  “Meanwhile, Thor kissed you.”

She smiled.  “On the cheek.”

He made a face.  

Peggy leaned in again, running her hand lightly over his chest.  The undershirt was old and worn and she could easily feel the heat of his body through it.  Fuck, she missed him.  She had a good night and she wanted to celebrate.

Peggy ran her fingers over his chest, up to his collarbone and then around his neck, cupping the nape of his neck.  He stayed where he was.  She could feel how fast he was breathing, but he ducked his chin toward his chest, his brow furrowed.  

“I’m your wife and we’re all alone, just the two of us,” she said, pressing against him more.  He was hard.  She smiled, biting down on her bottom lip.  “I know you want this, Steve.”

He looked up and met her gaze.  “Of course I want this,” he said seriously.  “I’m in love with you.”

Peggy went completely still.  She had no idea what to say, no idea what to do.  

Steve gave her a tight smile.  “I know it’s not mutual,” he said sadly.  “I want you, Peggy.  But I want more than just sex.  I want all of you.”

She took a step back, frowning.

Steve shrugged.  “At least we both know where we stand.”

With that, he pushed off the counter and walked around her, into the darkened bedroom.

  
**End Chapter**


	6. Chapter 6

Peggy laid awake on the couch for a long time.  Love.  Steve said he loved her.  Honestly, her first reaction, after terror, was to laugh.  How could he love her?  He didn’t even know her.

But the longer she stayed with that feeling, the fear and shock melted into a sort of sadness and longing.  She cared for Steve.  She wouldn’t deny that.  And she knew he cared for her.  Though she suspected that at least some of his care for her was rooted in a sense of obligation.

Peggy rolled over for what felt like the thousandth time, trying to get comfortable.  Why did Steve have to make it so complicated?  They were already married.  They were expected to sleep together.  Why couldn’t they both have that and enjoy one another?  Why did it have to mean more than that?

Peggy wanted Steve physically.  She knew she hated the idea of him with Lorraine.  But love?  She honestly didn’t think she was capable of loving anyone romantically.  She’d lost too much.  And she was still in Pierce’s crosshairs.  Steve was still a soldier, at the Empire’s beck and call.  Either or both of them could be gone in the blink of an eye.  What good would come of muddying the waters with promises they might not be able to keep?

Peggy finally managed to drift off to sleep, but she woke with the dawn, exhausted and unsettled.  As soon as she sat up and started moving around, Steve ventured out of the bedroom.  She watched him make coffee.

Steeling her nerve, she wrapped herself in her blanket and walked into the kitchen.  “What if I’m not content to be your roommate?”

Steve looked at her. He didn’t seem surprised by the topic of conversation.  She suspected it had been on his mind as well.  “So you’re moving out?  Or you’re demanding marital rights?”

She glowered at him, crossing her arms over her chest.  “I’d rather not have to either.  I know you enjoy sex.”

“Hell yeah, I enjoy it,” he said flatly.  “But I want to mean something to you.”

“Of course you mean something to me,” she snapped, frustrated.  “How can you think otherwise?  After everything you’ve done for me, of course I care for you.”  

“Do you love me?”  

She opened her mouth to respond, but no words were forthcoming.  

He shook his head, turning away.  “I know what I’m capable of.  And I’m not capable of having a friends with benefits relationship with you, Peggy.”  He shrugged.  “If you decide you want more than that, you know where I am.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy masturbated in the shower.  Loudly.  She felt marginally better when she left the bathroom.  Steve looked frustrated, which actually improved her mood considerably.  He could be all morally superior, but she’d be damned if she was the only one who was sexually frustrated.

It was the second to last day of class and Steve walked her there in silence.  It appeared that winter was firmly on the way in the Imperial homeworld.  Peggy hated it.  Sorros was a temperate world, never too hot, or too cold.  This god forsaken planet seemed to revel in the extremes.  It wasn’t just chilly, it was freezing.  Peggy could see her breath as she walked.

Last week they’d gone shopping and picked up winter necessities for Peggy; a coat, hat and gloves.  As well as an extra blanket for the couch.  She was still freezing.  She glanced over at Steve, whose cheeks were pinker than usual, but otherwise seemed unaffected.

Class was the same crap as usual, but everyone seemed upbeat with the end so close.  As she and Steve walked back to the apartment, she said, “I want to see my sister.”

He looked at her.  “Do you have a way to contact her?”

“She gave me a number.”

He nodded.  “Is she here illegally?”

Peggy pursed her lips together.  “You know she is.”

He seemed to understand she was spoiling for a fight and all he said was, “Please be careful.  As far as I know, nobody watches the building.  It’s mostly pensioners and civil servants.  She shouldn’t have any trouble getting in.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy called and left a message for Sharon.  She was surprised when Sharon called her back within the hour.  She gave her directions and some words of caution, which Sharon didn’t seem to appreciate, but promised she would follow nonetheless.

When Sharon arrived at the apartment, Steve remembered he had errands to run.  Peggy appreciated the privacy.

“Can you trust him?” Sharon asked bluntly, taking a seat on the couch next to Peggy.

“Yes,” Peggy replied firmly.

Sharon didn’t look convinced.  “You said he’s your husband, but you’re sleeping on the couch.”

Peggy frowned.  “How do you know that?”

Sharon inclined her head toward the blankets stacked on the floor.

Peggy slumped back on the couch.  “He is my husband.  And he can be trusted.”

“But you’re not sleeping with him.”

“Not at the moment, no,” she admitted.  Sharon just arched an eyebrow and waited.  Peggy sighed.  

Sharon said nothing, but gave Peggy a pitying look.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sharon shook her head.  “Nothing.”

Peggy huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.  “Why are you here?  How are you here?”

Sharon explained how she and scores of other Sorrosian refugees had regrouped on the outer edges of Imperial space.  There were tens of thousands of survivors, most of whom wanted to stay out of the way, to try and rebuild their lives as much as possible.

But there were those among them who weren’t content to rebuild.  Sharon, Sif, Thor, scores of others.  They reached out, made contact.  They found kindred spirits and together they managed to smuggle themselves onto the Imperial homeworld, hoping to make contact with the organized resistance against the Empire.

Peggy was more than a little shocked.  Sharon was considerably younger than she was, so she’d still been at home while Peggy was building her military career.  But she never would have taken her baby sister for such a fighter.

“So you believe there’s an organized resistance?” Peggy asked.

Sharon nodded.  “I do.  Sif’s made some solid contacts.  We’re hoping to meet face to face soon.”  She gave Peggy a hard look.  “Do you want in?  Or are you going to sit around here playing Imperial housewife?”

Peggy glowered.  “Of course I want in.”

“And if it means choosing between the Resistance and your husband?”

“You know what Mother always said, don’t go borrowing trouble,” Peggy said dryly.  “You don’t know for certain that there is a Resistance, or that they want anything to do with us.  Let’s get that sorted before we worry about other possible complications.”

 

* * *

 

Despite Peggy’s pragmatic words to Sharon, Peggy was worried about what would happen if she was forced to choose between the Resistance and Steve.  Well, not worried, precisely.  She would choose the Resistance.  There was no question.

But the thought of hurting Steve with her actions, or putting him in danger, gave her serious pause.  Despite being an Imperial, Steve had done everything in his power to protect her.  He knew a lot of her secrets and she trusted that he would never betray her.

It was late afternoon when he returned to the apartment.  He didn’t ask how things went with Sharon, or otherwise press Peggy for details.  “I saw Buck,” he said.  “They’re having another get together at their place.”

“Do you want to go?”

He shrugged.  “Weather’s supposed to get bad tonight.”

She smiled at him.  “You’re afraid of a little weather?”

He took the bait.  “Not if you’re not.”

 

* * *

 

The get together was like every other get together Barnes hosted.  Twice as many people showed up as had been invited.  And Steve had been right about the weather.  They were a block from Barnes place when it started to snow.  It continued to snow heavily throughout the night.

Lorraine was there, as usual, following Steve around, which did nothing to improve Peggy’s mood.  Natasha broke out a bottle of gin and she and Peggy indulged freely.  Sharon and Thor showed up after midnight.  Judging from the sour look on Sharon’s face, Peggy had no doubt that her sister hated the cold as much as she did.  Though considering how close Sharon and Thor were standing, Peggy wondered if Sharon had more than her coat to keep her warm.

Thor briefly joined them in the kitchen.  But he seemed to understand that Peggy, Sharon and Natasha were all feeling feisty.  He made a strategic retreat from the kitchen before he became collateral damage.

Following Peggy’s line of sight, Sharon said, “Who’s the blonde?”

“Lorraine,” Peggy replied darkly, taking another drink.  “She grew up with Steve and Barnes.”

“Lorraine has a thing for Steve,” Natasha said, “and Peg’s jealous.”

“I am not,” Peggy scoffed.

Sharon just looked at her.

“Oh, bugger off, all of you.”

* * *

 

It was late when people started to take their leave.  Sam and his date were back, ten minutes after they left, with news that the trains had stopped running due to the weather.  A good portion of the people at the party were from the neighborhood, so they managed to fight their way home.  But everybody else was stuck for the night.  It was a big house, but there were a lot of people.

Steve was standing in the kitchen with Peggy and Sharon when Barnes stuck his head in the kitchen.  “Can you and Peg take the attic?” he asked Steve.

“Sure,” Steve replied.

Peggy didn’t look at Sharon.  She didn’t want to hear it.

Lorraine, despite living in the neighborhood, was settling in on Barnes’ couch.  That, alone, was enough to keep Peggy glued to Steve’s side.  She followed him through the house, up to the second floor, and then up another rickety set of stairs to the attic.  The space was very close and it was freezing.  There were boxes stacked everywhere, but in one corner was a bed.  It looked slightly smaller than the one at the apartment, but had several blankets.

“This is cozy,” Peggy remarked dryly.

“I can find somewhere else if you don’t - “

“It’s fine, Steve,” she said, sitting down on the bed, and taking off her shoes.  He did the same. 

Peggy’s outfit had been chosen for effect, not comfort.  She pulled her shirt over her head, dropping it on the floor and shrugged out of her bra.  “Give me your shirt.”

Steve looked over at her and swallowed thickly.  He pulled his shirt over his head and handed it to her.  She stood up and pulled it over her head, wriggling a little more than was strictly necessary.  She then skimmed her leggings down and climbed between the icy covers, shivering.

Steve was obviously taking his time.  Peggy wondered if he wasn’t trying to take advantage of the frigid air.  He finally climbed beneath the covers and she immediately curled against his side, hooking her leg around one of his.  It was too cold to be shy.  

She lay there for a moment, relishing the feel of his bare chest against her cheek.  She’d missed this, so much.  They were both quiet, waiting for the sheets to warm up.  The snow outside dampened the sound and made it seem like they were the only two people in the entire world.  

Peggy traced her fingers over Steve’s chest, feeling his breath catch.  “I’m lonely,” she said, pressing a soft kiss to his chest.  She could feel the tension in his body.  His hands were fisted in the sheets, she was pretty sure so he didn’t reach for her.  “I want you,” she said.  “Make love to me.”

He groaned, but carefully extricated himself from her and rolled away.

She lay there, staring at his back.  “Really?”

“I already told you, Peggy,” he said tightly, “I want more than just sex.”

She huffed rolling over onto her back.  She stared up at the ceiling.  “Well, I’m horny,” she announced bitterly.  She wriggled out of her underwear and tossed it past Steve’s head.  She made rather more of a production of things than usual, but fuck it.  Or fuck him, rather.

She pulled her knees up, splaying them wide on the bed.  She started to touch herself, gently, just feeling.  She groaned, rolling her hips slightly.  She was already wet.  Sexual frustration for days, thanks to her husband and all his goddamn feelings and rules.  She moaned lightly, shifting on the bed.  Her mouth opened in a pant.

She continued to touch herself slowly, languidly.  She wasn’t cold anymore and she pushed the covers down and away.  She ran her fingers over the sensitive nub and her breath caught, her back arching as her toes curled.  She described to Steve what she was feeling, her voice low and breathy.

Steve rolled over.  She knew he was watching her.  She rucked up the shirt she was wearing - his shirt - baring her breasts to the cool air, feeling her nipple pucker tightly.  With one hand, she continued to touch herself, and with the other, she pinched her nipples, biting back a moan.

She could hear Steve’s breathing.  Her eyes fluttered shut and she smiled, rubbing herself harder.  “You can touch me, Steve.  I’d like it if you touched me.  Please touch me.”

He made a miserable, frustrated noise.

She looked over at him.  “Touch yourself.  I know you want to.  I want to see you come.”

He cursed then.  But he still didn’t touch her, or himself.

Peggy was through worrying about what the hell Steve wanted.  She brought herself to the edge and then backed off, twice.  She told Steve about the things she wanted him to do to her, the things she wanted to do to him.  She was aware of him burying his face in his pillow as she finally tipped over the edge into release, shivering and moaning.

 

* * *

 

Steve was not particularly kind when he woke her up the next morning.  “Come on,” he said, shaking her shoulder.  “You’re going to miss your last day of class.”

Peggy had slept pretty well.  She doubted the same was true for Steve, who appeared to be in an unusually bad mood.  His bad mood rubbed off on her and by the time they were on the train, they were snapping at one another.

There wasn’t time, before class, for them to go back to the apartment.  So Peggy showed up in her clothes from the night before, looking worse for the wear.  Thankfully there wasn’t much to the class, aside from a lot of nonsense about how proud the instructors were that everyone had completed the class.  Peggy found this slightly morbid, since she had a pretty good idea that not finishing the class meant you had probably been executed.

Afterward, there were cookies and coffee.  Peggy was on her second cup of coffee, with Steve hovering just off her left elbow.  That was when Gilmore Hodge opened his mouth to espouse his support of Imperial expansion policies.

Peggy gave him a poison smile and said, “Step over here, please.”

He laughed.  “We gonna dance?”

Steve stayed where he was, watching with interest.  But he didn’t say anything.

Peggy turned to the instructor.  “I’m an Imperial citizen now, correct?  Entitled to due process?”

“Of course, dear,” the instructor replied.

Peggy turned to Hodge and smiled.  And then punched him in the face as hard as she could.

 

* * *

 

It was chaos.  Steve had to pull Peggy off Hodge.  Steve caught an elbow across the cheek for his troubles.  Peggy did actually feel pretty bad about that, given that it was her elbow.

It was clear that the instructor was reluctant to report the incident.  She soothed Hodge’s ruffled feathers and split lip over as best as she could, and then suggested that Steve take Peggy home.

Peggy was absurdly pleased with herself, but Steve appeared to be in a thundering mood.  His color was high, his jaw tight, and he wouldn’t even look at her.  Peggy found herself getting mad that Steve was mad.

Steve opened the apartment door and Peggy followed right on his heels.  As soon as she closed the door, he spun around to face her.  Peggy opened her mouth to start a fight, but Steve pinned her back against the door, kissing her hard.

For a moment, Peggy didn’t respond, too shocked to process what was happening.  But as his tongue pushed past her lips, she gave over to it, threading her fingers through his hair, hooking her leg around his hip.

He was kissing her everywhere, his hands roaming freely under her shirt.  She shrugged out of her coat, and then pushed his coat back off his shoulders as well.  She shoved him backwards and then grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the bedroom, kicking off her shoes as she went.

They tumbled down onto the bed together, kissing, biting, pulling at clothes.  Steve got his shirt off, and Peggy had no idea where her leggings and panties were.  Peggy pushed Steve down onto his back and climbed over him, quickly undoing the buttons on his trousers and shoving the material down his hips. She took him in hand, stroking him firmly, listening to his breath catch, feeling his fingers biting into her thighs.  Slowly, she lowered herself on him.  They both groaned loudly.

She sat there for a moment, relishing the feeling of him inside her.  But she couldn’t wait long before she had to move, rising and falling on him.  One of his hands was up, under her shirt, pulling the cup of her bra down so he could palm her breast.  The other hand stroked between her legs.  It was exactly what she had been missing for weeks.  In short order, she was coming around him, hissing his name.  He rolled her over, driving into her, finding his own release.

In the aftermath, they managed to shed all their clothes and curl up under the covers.  He was laying against her, his head on her chest as her fingers sifted through his hair.

“So,” she said lightly, “I guess you like it when I beat guys up.”

He groaned, wrapping his arms tighter around her.  But he didn’t dare deny it.  She already knew he appreciated her strength, figurative and literal.  She just hadn’t realized all the implications.

They made love again, more slowly this time.  It made Peggy realize just how much she’d missed this intimacy with him, the feel of his skin against hers, his hands on her hips, the taste of his kisses on her lips.  

She’d had plenty of purely physical relationships in her life.  But that wasn’t what this was.  She knew that.  Regardless of what she wanted, this sham of a marriage was more than just sex.  A lot more.

 

* * *

 

Steve and Peggy spent most of the day in bed, drowsing and making love.  They finally ventured out after dark, to grab dinner in a local restaurant.  It was easier between them than it had been in weeks.  The day soothed both of them.  They sat together in a booth, Peggy tucked against Steve’s side, in a way that would have nauseated her had she seen another couple doing it.

Once home, they went to bed early, which was fine with Peggy.  It was freezing.  And at least now she had all the blankets, plus Steve, to keep her warm.  He seemed to take that job very seriously.

They laid together in the dark, him pressed along her back, trailing kisses over her shoulder.  She rolled over, facing him.  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.  “For being a shit earlier, and not respecting the boundaries you put in place.”

He didn’t say anything, but she forged ahead.  “I haven’t been completely honest,” she said.  “Not with myself, and not with you.”

“Yeah?”

She swallowed thickly.  “This isn’t just sex for me, Steve.  It hasn’t been just sex for a long time - if it ever was.”

He pulled her closer, and she could hear the smile in his voice.  “What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure,” she admitted.  “But I know that I miss you when we’re not together.  I care about you.  I want you.  You matter to me.  A lot.”

He pressed a kiss to the edge of her jaw.  “So what about our farce of a marriage?”

She winced, trying to ignore the way his lips and hands were roaming over her body.  “I’m sorry I said that.”

He took a deep breath, sobering for a moment.  “I want this to be real, Peggy.”

She reached up, touching the side of his face, pressing closer to him in the dark.  “It is real.  You asked me to be your partner, in my tradition.  And I accepted.”

He made a satisfied sound and captured her lips, kissing her gently.

 

**End Chapter**


	7. Chapter 7

Peggy took a deep breath, staring warily at her coffee, and then looking at Steve.  He was reading the paper.  She hated to risk ruining the ease they’d found with one another, with politics.  But she needed answers.  

She crossed the room and took a seat at the table with Steve.  “Is there an organized resistance to the Empire?”

Steve looked up from the paper, blinking at her.  He sighed, setting the paper aside.  “Yes, there is,” he said bluntly, frowning.

She nodded, pursing her lips together.  She had assumed as much, given what she’d seen over the last couple of months.  The Empire was doing their damndest to hide it.  But it was clear things weren’t nearly as calm and orderly as they wanted everyone to believe.  “How do you know?”

He was quiet again.  He stood up and crossed the kitchen, pouring himself another cup of coffee.  He turned and looked at her, his expression somber and pinched.  “Because I’m part of it.”

She blinked, in shock.   _ Steve _ was part of the resistance?  She’d been sleeping with him for months and she didn’t know this.  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice.

He looked at her, his expression carefully neutral.  “Why didn’t you tell me that you’re trying to get in contact with the Resistance?”

She frowned at him, taking his point, even if she didn’t want to.  Quietly, she admitted, “I didn’t know if I could trust you.”

He nodded, returning to the table and sinking into a chair.  “That’s why I didn’t tell you,” he said.  He shook his head.  “Regardless of how I feel about you, Peggy, I can’t jeopardize the lives of other Resistance members.  We’ve lost dozens of people, because someone let in the wrong person.”

Peggy bristled.  “Do you really doubt my dedication to ending the Empire?”

“Yours?” Steve asked.  “No.  Absolutely not.  I would never doubt your dedication.  But I don’t know the other Sorrosians.  I don’t know what they have hanging in the balance, or where they’ve been since they fled.  Pierce isn’t an idiot, Peggy.  He knows one well placed spy can be more effective than a full on invasion.”

She wanted to argue with him, to tell him that none of the Sorrosians would ever break.  But the truth was, she didn’t know.  She knew that Sharon, Sif and Thor would never break, never turn.  But the others?  Steve was right.  She didn’t know about them.  Not anymore.

“There’s a meeting taking place,” he said.  “It’ll happen.  As soon as they’re vetted.”

She nodded, feeling hurt, but also absolutely understanding the logic in his words.  “How long have you been a part of it?”

He sighed, lacing his fingers together on the table.  “The Resistance isn’t monolithic.  There have been lots of uprisings against the Empire over the years.  Most of them have ended in mass executions.”  He paused, glancing at her.  “But I started doing my part after Stane made taking Sorros a priority.”

She frowned at him.  “You did this for Sorros?”

He looked at her helplessly.  “I did it because what Stane and Pierce were doing wasn’t right.  I don’t like bullies.  I don’t care where they’re from.  They twisted the Empire, used its might to take whatever they wanted.  The Empire wasn’t better than Sorros.  The Imperial forces weren’t stronger, or smarter.  They were simply more plentiful.”  He took a deep breath.  “It was a low point, for the Empire, and for me.  After that I couldn’t sit back and watch it anymore.”

“Is that why you married me?” she asked.  “Because you like to root for the underdog?”

He looked at her.  “I married you because I fell in love with your heart, and your devotion to your world.  You never back down.”  He shrugged.  “How could I not love that?”

She gave him a watery smile and leaned over, kissing him softly.  He sighed, leaning into it, letting it linger.

She pulled back and looked at him, expression grave.  “We want in.”

He looked at her.  “There’s a process.”

She nodded, setting down her coffee.  She moved, situating herself in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. She kissed along his neck.  “Set up a meeting.”

She could feel him swallow.  “Are you trying to manipulate me with sex?”

“Yes,” she answered bluntly.  “Is it working.”

He wrapped his arms around her.  “Probably, but I think you should probably continue with what you were doing just to be sure.”

 

* * *

 

Steve held Peggy’s hand in his own as he made his way down the darkened corridor.  They were near the Imperial shipyards, in an old warehouse.  Everything smelled musty and there wasn’t a lot of light.  Steve pushed through a door, and then they went down a flight of stairs.  At the end of a long hall was another door.  Steve knocked.

A huge guy pulled open the door.  As soon as he saw Steve, he stepped aside.  Steve entered the room.  There were maybe two dozen people there.  Conversation stopped as Steve entered and most of the people nodded to him deferentially.  

Steve took a seat on top of an old desk and the conversation started again.  Peggy sat close to him.  “You’re more than just a member of the Resistance, aren’t you?”

He looked over at her, frowning.  “We don’t formally have a leader.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.  “But if it was put to a vote, you’d win, right?”

He didn’t answer her.  He didn’t need to.  She had the lay of the land.

Peggy’s attention turned to the door as Sam, Scott, Bucky and Natasha entered the room.  Natasha nodded to Peggy, and Peggy wondered whether Natasha had been to other Resistance meetings.  Probably.  She tried not to let that irritate her.  She already knew Steve was more of a stickler for protocol than Barnes.

There was another knock at the door and a young woman entered the room.  She stopped and looked at Steve.  He nodded to her and she darted back out the door.

“Wanda,” Steve said quietly to Peggy.

Peggy stood up, watching as Wanda entered again, with Thor, Sharon, Sif, Hogun, Dooley, and Rose.

 

* * *

 

Peggy waited until the meeting was over and then crossed the room to Sharon, who pursed her lips at her.  Peggy knew that the vetting process rubbed Sharon the wrong way.  She’d spent years fighting the Empire and now her credibility was being called into question.  “They’re just being cautious,” Peggy said gently.

“Right,” Sharon said, “we’d hate to let people into the fold who were only mildly annoyed with the Empire.”

Peggy knew her sister understood the gravity of the situation.  She was just being a pain in the ass.  And Peggy understood why.  Sharon and the others were trying to survive off the grid.  It wasn’t easy, even in a city so large.  They were constantly on the move, looking for shelter, food, basic necessities.  Peggy handed her the pack she’d brought.  It wasn’t much, but hopefully it would help.

Sharon opened it and rifled through it a bit.  She finally sighed and gave Peggy a tight smile.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Peggy said.  She took a deep breath.  “Did you find it?”

Sharon frowned, but reached in her pocket.  She removed the item and handed it to Peggy.  “You sure you know what you’re doing?”

Peggy nodded, reminding herself that her sister’s suspicion was rooted in concern.  “Yes,” she said, then frowned.  “Where’d you find it?”

“Phillips,” Sharon said quietly.

“How is he?” Peggy asked tightly.  She knew her former mentor had made it off Sorros with Sharon and the others.  But he was in very poor health and Peggy hadn’t been able to see him face to face.

“You know Chet,” Sharon said with a sour frown.  “Grouchy old bastard, as always.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy was sitting in bed when Steve crawled in and wrapped himself around her.  He pressed a hard kiss to her bare shoulder.  “Well, what’s your professional assessment of the meeting, General Carter?”

She looked at him and smiled.  “I think it went as well as could be expected.  Sorros has a lot to offer the Resistance.  And vice versa.  If we can just avoid a pissing match, we’ll be great.”

Steve nodded.  “Indeed.”  

Peggy turned to look at him, poised to say something, but he toppled her back on the bed, kissing her.  He finally pulled back far enough to look at her.  He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.  “How is your sister?  I’m pretty sure she hates me.”

Peggy rolled her eyes.  “Such fuss.  She doesn’t hate you.  She just doesn’t like you.”

Steve frowned.

“Actually,” she said, “she had something I needed.”

Steve arched an eyebrow and waited.

Peggy rolled over and reached into the drawer of the nightstand.  She sat up and Steve did so as well.  Taking a deep breath, she looked at him.  Slowly, she held out her hand.  In her palm, rested her compass.  It was a far cry from the sleek, polished compass Steve had given her.  It had been well used and had seen her through years of war.  The outside was battered and scarred.  But it was what she had.

He took a deep breath and looked at her hand.  Slowly, he touched the compass, and she knew he understood the significance of this act.  Peggy pressed it into his hand.  “Steve Rogers,” she said carefully, “would you do me the honor of being my partner?”

He looked at her intently and nodded.  “Always.”

Leaning forward, she kissed him.  He returned the kiss eagerly, pulling her down against him.  She pressed close, her naked length against his.  One of his hands was tangled in her hair, the other skimmed over her body.

She smiled, rolling him over and climbing on top of him.  She braced herself on her arms, looking down at him.  He stared back up at her, a slightly goofy smile on his lips.  Slowly, she ducked her head and kissed him.  He sighed, his hands finding her hips and then tracing slowly up and down her back.

She pushed herself back, sitting up on him.  She scraped her hair back out of her eyes and looked down at him.  She could feel him, hard already, trapped between their bodies.  She rolled her hips, rubbing against him, watching his eyes flutter shut.

Had it really only been a couple of months since they were first here?  The disastrous consummation of their conscripted marriage.  And now they were here again, making another kind of commitment, forging another kind of bond.

“I love you,” she said softly.

His eyes snapped open and he pushed himself up into a sitting position, gathering her close and kissing her hard.  “I love you, Peggy.”

They kissed for long minutes, tongues tangling together, hands roaming possessively.  When neither of them could take it any more, he lifted her hips, lowering her slowly on him.  She leaned forward, biting his shoulder, making his breath catch.

They moved together, straining, gasping.  She raked her nails down his back, cursing his name as she came.  He quickly followed her into bliss.

 

* * *

 

Peggy sat in the lobby of the clinic, alone, waiting on her health assessment.  She’d been here two days ago, and they asked her to come back.  She was more than a little concerned they’d realized they disabled her tracker on accident.  

She wished Steve was here, but he’d been gone for the past four days.  His three months of post-marriage leave had been over for a while.  The Empire hadn’t wasted any time in getting him back to work.  He was deployed a lot.  

According to Steve, the deployments weren’t as bad as they used to be.  Apparently he used to be deployed for months, or years, at a time.  That was no longer the case.  But it wasn’t uncommon for him to be gone the better part of a week.  

It gave her plenty of time to make headway with plans for the Resistance.  There was so much to do, and not enough people.  Most of the time, she managed to keep herself so busy that she didn’t worry about Steve.  But she would catch herself wondering where he was, if he was okay.  She couldn’t help remembering how badly he’s been injured on a few short months ago.  It made the times that he was at home all the more precious.

“Mrs. Rogers.”

Peggy looked up at the young woman with the clipboard, and followed her back to the exam room.  Peggy took a seat on the table as the woman leafed through papers, compiling a stack for Peggy.  She turned and looked at Peggy.  “Congratulations,” she said.  “Your latest bloodwork came back positive.  You’re pregnant.”

Peggy just blinked at her.  “Pardon?”

She smiled brightly.  “You’re going to have a baby.  Congratulations.  Please don’t forget to submit your paperwork for Imperial subsidies.”  The woman handed her a stack of papers.  

Peggy listened, without really hearing anything, as the woman talked to her about the kinds of foods and activities she needed to avoid.  She informed Peggy that she would be receiving a call from an obstetrician’s office, and they would oversee her care during her pregnancy.

Peggy managed to make it out of the clinic and back to the apartment.  She sat numbly on the couch.  

Pregnant.

She was pregnant.

_ Shit. _

She and Steve were often careful.  But not always.  Especially after they both admitted how much they wanted the relationship, their sex life had been more spontaneous.  But she’d thought they were careful enough.  

Apparently they weren’t.

She went about the rest of her day rather mechanically.  She could manage to get distracted with something, and then it would hit her, all over again.  She wondered what Steve would think.  All he’d ever said was that he wanted the decision about children to be made by them, rather than the Empire.  Their combined carelessness had made the decision for them.

Peggy understood the timing couldn’t have been worse.  The Resistance was finally getting traction.  The last thing either she or Steve needed was another liability.

But as the lay in bed that night, alone, she couldn’t help the little thrill of excitement.  The years of war on Sorros had taken from her the hope of ever having a family.  She’d given up on finding a partner, on making a family.  And somehow, in the midst of what should have been a disaster for everyone, she found both.

She loved Steve.  She couldn’t even try to deny that any longer.  And despite the awful timing, she wanted this.

  
  


**End Chapter**


	8. Chapter 8

Peggy looked up as Steve walked through the door.  She rose to her feet, waiting for him to put his pack down, and then wrapped herself around him.  Steve gathered her closer, kissing her.  He backed her against the door, nuzzling her neck, his hands searching under her shirt.  “Missed you,” he said gruffly.

She kissed him back, but they both stopped as an announcement blared over the radio.  Peggy had been waiting on it, and had the volume up.

They stood where they were, pressed against one another, listening to the official Imperial recap of the explosion at one of the supply depots.  There was no mention of the Resistance, but Peggy knew that was who was responsible.

The Resistance had made several high profile hits in the last two weeks.  They managed to intercept some Imperial banking transactions, which would do wonders for their coffers.  And then two different ops had netted a lot of military grade supplies, which would be put to good use.

Peggy listened to the report intently, biting down on her bottom lip.  She turned to Steve.  “What really happened?”

He reluctantly backed away from her and crossed the room, turning off the radio.  He shrugged out of his coat, hanging it in the closet.  “We hit one of the supply depots,” he said quietly.  “Not a big one, but strategically a disaster.  It had shipments of unrefined ore that Pierce was planning to trade to the Federation in return for the Federation policing the Imperial borders in Sector Five.”

Peggy nodded.  She knew how vital Sector Five was to the Imperial expansion plan.  “That’s good, but I assume it comes at a cost.”

Steve nodded.  “We’re gathering enough steam that the Empire isn’t going to be able to pretend we don’t exist.  More publicity means potentially drawing more recruits to the Resistance.  But it also means that the Empire can justify cracking down harder since there won’t be a need for secrecy.”

Peggy shrugged.  “Downside or not, the Resistance has to keep pushing.  No one has seen Howard Stark for years.  If we could find Tony.  If he really is a sympathizer.  Can you imagine?”

Steve nodded solemnly.  “We could change everything.”

“Stane and Pierce are on shaky ground without Howard Stark’s visible backing,” Peggy said.  “I understand that war makes strange bedfellows - “  She stopped for a minute and looked at Steve, smirking.   “But neither of those two has any interest in sharing power.  Their alliance isn’t sustainable.  They’re going to turn on each other.”

Steve nodded.  He moved to the couch and pulled Peggy with him.  He took a seat and she followed him down, straddling him, letting him pull her close.  He buried his nose under the edge of her jaw, breathing deep.  “They will.  But I don’t want to talk about Pierce and Stane right now.”

She ran her fingers through his hair, making him shiver.  “What do you want to talk about?”

He pulled back and looked at her seriously.  “Do you have anything you want to tell me?”

She looked at him with faux innocence.

“Maybe about your last health check?”

She sighed, slumping.  “They told you?  Christ, it’s been two days.”

He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her.  “It’s protocol, Peggy.  I got a congratulations in my official mail when I caught the transport back home.”

“But I wanted to tell you,” she said.  It wasn’t a whine.  It definitely wasn’t a whine.

He looked at her, frowning.  “How do you really feel about this?  You were pretty clear from the get go that you didn’t want kids.”

She pursed her lips together, looking at him.  “I didn’t,” she admitted.  “But now that it’s happened, I’m not upset.“  She shrugged, feeling sheepish.  “I understand the timing is awful.”   She pinned him with her gaze.  “What do you think?”

He gave her a slightly dopey smile.  “I think I love you.”

She rolled her eyes, trying to seem nonchalant.  “I already knew that.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “but I feel like I should spend some time proving the point anyway.”

She laughed as he stood up, with her in his arms, and headed for the bedroom.

 

* * *

 

Later, in the dark, she was laying on her side, with Steve spooned behind her.  Their fingers were threaded together, resting over her lower abdomen.  There was no sign, yet, of the child she carried.  It would be many weeks before she started to show.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

She nodded.  “Okay.  A little tired.”

“No sickness?”

“Not yet,” she said.  “Hopefully not at all, but only time will tell.”

He was quiet.  “Have you told anyone yet?”

She snorted.  “I intended to tell you first, but I didn’t even get to do that,” she groused.

He held her tighter, and she could almost feel the worry.  “If they told me, then Pierce already knows too.  I need you to be safe - both of you.”

She took a deep breath.  As much as she would have loved to shrug off his concerns, she knew they were valid.  “I’ll be careful.”

“I love you, Peggy,” he said softly, pressing a kiss to her jaw.  She tightened her grip on his hand, smiling in the dark.

 

* * *

 

“Pregnant?  You’re  _ pregnant? _ ”

“Fuck’s sake, Sharon,” Peggy snapped, looking around Barnes’ kitchen.  “Not so loud.”  Barnes was hosting yet another get together, which were becoming more and more covers for Resistance gatherings.  She suspected they were going to have to stop soon to avoid attracting too much attention.

“I saw you on Tuesday and you didn’t mention a word,” Sharon said in an irritated whisper.

“I needed to tell Steve first,” Peggy replied tightly.  “And he just got home yesterday.”

“You realize the timing is awful,” Sharon pressed, crossing her arms over her chest.  “And the Empire owns him.”

“Yes, thank you,” Peggy said dryly.  “Both of those things had occurred to me, but I appreciate your diligence in pointing it out.”

Sharon shook her head, looking pained.  “I understand that he’s easy on the eyes, and part of the resistance, but this was a forced marriage, Peggy.  Use him.  Use his connections.  But what are you doing having a kid with him?”

Natasha laid a reassuring hand on Peggy’s shoulder and then made a strategic exit.  Sharon watched the byplay with narrowed eyes.  “What?  What does Natasha know that I don’t?”

Peggy took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest.  “I ... love him,” she said in a near whisper.

Sharon pulled back like she’d been slapped, blinking at Peggy.  “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Peggy said sourly, hating the fact that she could feel her cheeks flaming.  The fact that people knew she was married to Steve, sleeping with Steve, even pregnant with his child, was significantly less embarrassing than the admission she’d just made to Sharon.

“Seriously?” Sharon asked.

“Quite,” Peggy said firmly, giving Sharon a look that dared her to disagree.

Sharon shrugged.  “Huh.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Peggy demanded.

Sharon shook her head.  “Nothing, I just - “  She paused, taking a deep breath, really looking at Peggy.  “Congratulations.”

Peggy wasn’t sure what to think, but she said, “Thank you.”

Peggy was spared needing to say anything else by a commotion in the front room.  Peggy and Sharon both moved to the doorway, watching as Hope helped a badly wounded Scott through the door.  Sam immediately ran to help, hooking one of Scott’s arms over his shoulders.  They managed to get him to the couch.

Peggy was aware of Steve and Barnes having come in from the back room.  Steve’s arm rested around her waist as they both watched.

“Get back, all of you,” Claire snapped, pushing through the crowd to help Scott.

 

* * *

 

“The official line is that the patrols broke up a robbery in progress.  That was their excuse for canvassing the neighborhood after Scott got away,” Barnes said gravely.  He’d spoken with Scott, after Claire moved him upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms.  

“What was it really?” Sharon asked.

“A small meeting,” Barnes said.  “Scott, Matt, Foggy.  We think it was coincidence that they were almost caught.  It wasn’t a task force from the Ministry of Justice.  It was just a standard patrol.  But even at that, Scott was lucky to get away.  He doesn’t think he was made.  Considering riot forces haven’t shown up here, he was probably right.”

“What about Matt and Foggy?” Steve asked.

Barnes shook his head.  

“Shit,” Steve cursed.

 

* * *

 

Peggy looked around the apartment, giving the real estate agent a tight smile.  She went into the smaller of the two bedrooms.  It was bright, sunny, had a view of the park across the street.  This apartment was a far cry from the one she and Steve currently shared.  It was in a small building in a quiet neighborhood.  There were lots of families.

“What do you think?” Steve asked.

She looked at him, making sure the real estate agent was in the other room.  “I think it’s absurd we’re house hunting while no one knows what happened to Matt.”  Foggy, unfortunately, had been found face down in the river, the morning after Scott staggered into Barnes’ house.

Steve shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged.  “We have to keep up appearances, Peggy.”  He frowned.  “What do you think  _ about the apartment _ ?”

She sighed.  “It’s lovely,” she said.  And it was.  Hardwood floors, natural light, a nice little yard, and a park across the street.  It had two bedrooms, and two baths.  The kitchen seemed nice, which Peggy supposed was probably a perk.  With a kid on the way, one of them was going to have to figure out how to cook.

A year ago, Steve wouldn’t have been allowed to look at a place like this, despite his status with the military.  This entire neighborhood was reserved for couples with children.  It reminded her more of her home growing up on Sorros than anything else she’d seen so far in the Empire.  It felt warm, inviting.  It was a place where someone could raise a family.  She just didn’t know if that someone was her, especially with everything going on at the moment.

* * *

 

When all was said and done, Steve and Peggy both agreed they liked the apartment they’d seen.  And it was clear that they weren’t going to be able to put another person - even a small one - into where they were currently living.

And, as Steve had pointed out, they had to keep up appearances.  The Resistance was hard at work, amassing resources and contacts, getting footholds they would need later.  But in the meantime, they needed to at least look like they were living the lives of exemplary Imperial citizens.  They committed to their conscripted marriage and had a baby on the way.  A new apartment was just part of the show.

Peggy honestly hadn’t given a lot of consideration to how much money Steve had, but he apparently had enough to buy the new place.  It took a couple of weeks, but they closed on the new apartment, and sold the old one.  

They had plenty of help to move, which was nice, even though they didn’t own a lot.  Sam, Barnes and Natasha were all on hand.  Steve and Peggy used their current furniture, without buying anything new.  The new apartment looked a little empty, but not uncomfortably so.  

“Room to grow,” Peggy had said.  She hadn’t missed the look Steve had given her midsection.  Thankfully, she wasn’t starting to show yet.  Other than her breasts, which, somehow, were getting bigger.  A highly inconvenient development - even if Steve seemed to enjoy it.

The smaller of the two bedrooms was completely empty, and would stay that way for a while.  Peggy wasn’t very far along.  A lot could still go wrong. Peggy’s one concession was having Steve paint the room a soft, warm gray.

 

* * *

 

There was still no word on Matt.  Several other resistance operatives had gone missing as well - Malcolm and Skye.  Peggy hadn’t known either of them well, but Steve obviously did, and was very concerned.  Checkpoints were becoming more commonplace as Peggy went about her day.  She could count on being asked for her papers at least once, every time she left the apartment.

Peggy never would have dreamed that things could get so tense on the Imperial homeworld, and yet, it had.  It made Peggy more determined than ever, to proceed with their plans.  The Resistance hadn’t done much, in the grand scope, but even that was enough to seriously rattle Imperial cages.

There was another op in the works, for that very night.  This time, to steal Imperial data.  Steve and Barnes brought Fury into the fold.  Peggy had been concerned, but so far Fury seemed on board.  Bringing Fury in, unfortunately, had involved bringing several more military personnel in and Peggy was less sold on them.  She didn’t think Steve or Barnes were particularly crazy about the idea either.  But they needed access to resources, and to get those resources, they had to bring in more people.

The plan for the data breach was two fold, there was a physical breakin that needed to happen, to get access to the secured data network.  And then an electronic break in.  As it stood, five people would go.  Sharon, Barnes, and Natasha were leads.  Jessica and Trish would go as well.  Jessica was good at the breaking and entering, Trish had the connections to get them into the building where the data center was housed.  Jasper Sitwell, one of Fury’s operatives, was there to grab the data.

Peggy knew that Barnes was not happy about being left behind, but he and Steve were both too high profile for an op like this.  Peggy wanted to be part of it, but Sharon and Natasha weren’t having it, and voted her off the crew, much to her irritation.  So she was reluctantly sitting this one out as well.

She’d tried complaining to Steve about it, but she hadn’t received much sympathy.  “We need to make an exit plan for you in case things go south,” he said.

She’d hated the euphemisms.  ‘Make an exit plan’ and ‘things go south’.  He was talking about the end of their lives, as they knew it, in such bland terms.  It’s not like that was a new concept to her.  She’d done the hard math countless times during the Siege of Sorros.  She’d made decisions that cost lives, to save others.

But it had never been her  _ family _ .  Peggy stood up and walked over to the doorway to the empty second bedroom, leaning against the doorjamb.  

Steve walked up behind her.  He wrapped his arm around her waist, and pressed a kiss to the back of her head.  “I thought you weren’t decorating in here,” he said.  She could hear the smile in his voice.

She looked over her shoulder at him.  “It’s hardly decorated.”

There was a small shelf on the far wall, left by the previous tenants.  On it, Peggy had put both of their compasses.

“Have you thought about names?” she asked, turning around to look at him.

He shrugged.  “Not really.”

“What were your parents’ names?”

“Joseph and Sarah,” he answered evenly.  “Yours?”

“Amanda and Harrison,” she said.

He pulled her close, his lips against the shell of his ear when he spoke.  “What do you think it is?”

“At least half Sorrosian.  Of that I’m certain,” she said wryly.  “I’m not sure about the other half.”

He nudged her playfully.  “You know what I mean.”

She did know what he meant.  And as much as she’d tried to avoid thinking about it, she had thought about it.  “I think it’s a girl,” she admitted.  She looked up at him.

Steve smiled.  “She’ll be my hope for a better life”

  
  


* * *

 

Steve and Peggy were both pacing around the living room, unable to relax.  Peggy had tried every time waster she could think of.  She’d even tried going to sleep, but it was no use.  She was too nervous, and had wandered back out into the living room where Steve was.

It was very late and it would still be another hour before they heard anything.  Peggy was nervous for a thousand different reasons, not least of all because her sister was putting herself at great risk.  She knew that Sharon felt like she had a lot to prove, being Peggy’s younger sister.  And Peggy hated the idea that she could inadvertently be the cause of Sharon being hurt - or worse.

The hour came and went, with no news.

Peggy was chewing on her fingernails, her foot tapping the floor relentlessly.  When the phone finally did ring, it scared Peggy so much she jumped.

She stood back, pacing as Steve answered the phone.  His jaw was tight and she knew the news was bad.  Her heart was racing.  As soon as he hung up the phone she said, “What happened?”

He shook his head.  “I’m not sure.  That was Buck.  He said Fury’s missing.  And none of the crew are back from the op.  None of them have checked in.”

Peggy shook her head.  “Fury wasn’t even in on the op.”

“I know,” Steve said, with a kind of grim finality.  He took a deep breath, his expression tight.  “This is bad.”

“Fuck,” Peggy cursed again, pacing in a tight circle.  “She’s my sister, Steve.   _ My sister.   _ She’s all the family I have left.”

“I know,” Steve said calmly, “but right now, we need to get you the hell out of here.  We can figure out the rest later.”

“No,” she balked. 

“Peggy, if they have Fury, they have all of us.  They’re coming here.  Now.  We have to get you, and the baby, out of here.”

She understood the danger, but she shook her head.  “You say that like you’re not going with me.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it.  He grabbed her wrist and ushered her through the apartment to the bedroom.  He grabbed a pack and started shoving things in it.  “Hurry.  Get dressed.”

“I’m not going without you,” she snapped, but she reached for a pair of jeans.

He turned to her, grasping her upper arms in his hands.  Whatever he was going to say was lost.

There was an incredible bang and the front door was thrown open.  There was a blinding flash of light and a deafening explosion.  Peggy was aware of Steve wrapping himself around her, shielding her with his body.  There was smoke everywhere and she choked.  

Peggy was grasping for Steve, but there were hands, pulling her away.

Steve roared.  Through the smoke, she could see him, shoving away security officers in riot gear.  He looked at her and stopped dead in his tracks.

Peggy could feel the cold metal bite of the gun barrel against her temple.

When he spoke, she knew it was Rumlow.  “Hey, Cap,” he said.  “How about we do this the easy way so your pretty little pregnant wife doesn’t get hurt.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy stumbled as the guard shoved her into the room.  It was a holding cell.  Small.  All of the surfaces were stainless steel, and there was a drain in the floor.  It was freezing, but that wasn’t why she shivered.  

Peggy rubbed her arms.  She was still wearing the damn nightgown.  At least they’d taken the bag off her head.  She had no idea where Steve was.  Or Sharon.

Fuck.

It was a bitter pill for Peggy to swallow.  She’d known - going into this, she’d known, almost from the very start, that it was all a setup.  She’d known that Pierce gave her to Steve as a punishment, hoping that she would trip him up, be his downfall.  

She wasn’t going to take the blame on this one.  She and Steve were both part of the Resistance.  He’d signed up before they’d even met.  But Peggy also knew that he wouldn’t have been watched as closely if he hadn’t been married to her.  Being with her hadn’t helped him at all.  It may not have helped the Resistance, either.

She prayed that Steve and Sharon got away.  Steve had connections, and near super human strength.  Maybe he could fight his way free.  Maybe he could make it offworld.

But even as she considered it, she knew, with a leaden certainty, that he would never do that.  He would never run and leave her behind.  That wasn’t who he was.  He wouldn’t do it.  Not even for the Resistance.

Sharon would though.  Peggy knew that about her sister.  Natasha would too.  If either of them had a chance, they would take it.  It was dubious comfort, but it was all Peggy had at the moment.

Maybe someone would make it out of this.

She was fairly sure she wasn’t going to.

  
  


* * *

 

Steve looked up as the door to his cell opened.  He was shocked to see Obadiah Stane.  He figured Pierce would be the one behind this, the one to watch on with smug satisfaction while the Imperial interrogators took turns at him.

Stane gave him a cold smile.  “Well, if it isn’t Pierce’s favorite whipping boy.”

Steve said nothing.  He needed to know where Peggy and the others were.  They’d separated him and Peggy as soon as they got them out of the apartment.  He knew enough about Imperial interrogations to assume she was here - in the Ministry of Justice.  He also knew enough to know that she was probably being tortured.

He tested the cuffs.  They were designed to hold him.  He could probably get out.  But get out, and find Peggy, and get them both out?  He doubted that.  And if he got himself killed in the process, it would be her death warrant as well.  The only reason she was alive, he knew, was because she was a pain point for him.

“I want to see my wife,” he said, glaring up at Stane.

  
  


**End Chapter**


	9. Chapter 9

Steve pushed himself into a sitting position as the door to his cell opened.  He had no idea how many days it had been.  It felt like weeks, but he suspected it was probably only three or four days.  They hadn’t really let him sleep, hadn’t fed him, had barely given him anything to drink.  They would question him for hours, and then leave him alone, in this bare metal cell for hours on end.

He knew they were probably doing the same thing to Peggy.

His fingers itched to tear out their throats.  If they touched her, he would.

He looked up at Rumlow, who smirked down at him.  He knew Rumlow wanted to use his fists on Steve.  So far, that hadn’t happened.  Steve had no idea why, but he knew that Stane must have forbidden again.

He hoped to God that they were using the same tactics on Peggy, and not something more aggressive.  

“I want to see my wife.”

Rumlow laughed.  “Your wife.”  He shook his head.  “Did I ever tell you how little it took to get her to meet with me?  All I did was pass her a note, and she showed up.  Makes me think she wanted something.  Something you weren’t giving her.”  He winked at Steve.

Steve knew, in both his mind and his heart, that there had been no flirtation between Peggy and Rumlow.  But he still wanted to murder Rumlow on principle.

Rumlow moved aside and Stane stood in the doorway.  “On your feet, Captain.”

 

* * *

 

Steve was flanked by a half dozen guards as they led him through the Ministry’s sterile hallways.  His hands were cuffed behind his back, his feet were bound as well, with just enough slack for him to shuffle along.  They took one left, then another, and then they entered an observation room.  

Steve’s eyes burned and his breath caught as he saw Peggy on the monitors.  She was sitting on the floor in a cell like his, shivering, wearing nothing but her nightgown, which was dirty and torn in places.  She didn’t look like she had slept, or eaten.

But it didn’t look like she’d been tortured.

“Let her go,” Steve said, his voice deadly quiet.

Stane sighed and looked at Steve.  “Captain, you know that’s not an option, but we can discuss things that are possible.”

“Like what?” Steve snapped.

Stane gave Rumlow and the guards a hard look and they all shuffled out of the room, leaving him and Steve alone.  Stane looked Steve up and down, his expression unimpressed.  “You hardly look like a rebellious mastermind.”

“Release my wife,” Steve bit out.

Stane snorted, shaking his head.  “Captain, she is an enemy combatant.  She would have been put down months ago, if it weren’t for Pierce’s interference.  She assaulted another citizen at integration training.  And now she’s been picked up for inciting insurrection.”  He laughed.  “Along with her sister.”  He looked at Steve.  “Anything I’m missing?  You know as well as I do that if she wasn’t your wife, she would already be dead.”

“She had nothing to do with the data breach,” Steve said.  

Stane waved him off.  “Jesus, Rogers, the data breach?  That was nothing.  A setup.  Fish in a barrel, thanks to some well placed spies in Fury’s chain of command.”

Steve ground his teeth together.

“My point, Captain, is that your wife is a lost cause.  She has no place in this Empire.”

Steve started to move and Stane held out a remote.  Steve knew what it was for.  It controlled implants, like the one embedded at the base of Steve’s skull.  Every Imperial soldier had one.  The remote could be used to incapacitate, or torture, or kill.

“It’s not yours,” Stane said.  “It’s hers.  Keep that in mind.  You wouldn’t want me to get excited and start pushing buttons accidentally.”

Steve rocked back on his heels, forcing himself to relax.

“I’m willing to discuss ways in which she might live out a long and,” he paused, “ _ fruitful _ life, outside the bounds of the Empire.”

“How?”

Stane shrugged.  “I need you to do a favor for me.  Do it, and I’ll see to it that your wife is relocated.  But make no mistake, this isn’t forgiveness.  She won’t be able to remain your wife.  The marriage will be dissolved, and she will officially be forbidden from ever entering Imperial space again - on punishment of death.”  He smiled.  “But she’ll be alive.  And your bastard with her.”

“And me?”

“Oh, we’re keeping you, Captain.  You’re far too valuable to be left moldering away in some dusty corner of the galaxy.  No, you’ll stay here.”  Stane gave him a hard look.  “How much does she mean to you?  How much does the promise of the child she carries mean to you?”

Steve blinked quickly, looking up at the monitors, at Peggy shivering on the floor.  

“Your father was given a similar choice once, Rogers,” Stane said quietly.  “I think he’d be happy you made it this far.”

Steve looked at Stane.  He had no idea what that meant, and he wasn’t going to bite.  “What do you want me to do?”

“I need you,” Stane said cheerfully, “to murder Alexander Pierce.”

Steve was shocked that he was shocked.  “Afraid to do it yourself?”

“Afraid?” Stane mused.  He shook his head.  “No.  But it’s ... inconvenient.  Better if one of Pierce’s own turns on him.  It’ll sit better with the public.”

“And what does Stark say about this?” Steve pressed.

Stane laughed, a sound of true amusement.  “Oh, Rogers,” he said.  “Howard Stark has been dead for nearly eight years.”

Steve was struck dumb.  Stark, the Emperor, was dead.  Stane and Pierce had been running the Empire into the ground for nearly a decade with no power in the throne.  

Steve was certain that Tony Stark’s disappearance hadn’t been an accident at all.

“I see that shocked you,” Stane said smugly.  He chucked Steve on the shoulder.  “So,” he said, “how about my proposition?”

Steve looked up at the monitors, at Peggy.  “I’ll do it.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy shivered, leaning against the corner of the room, trying to curl herself into as tight of a ball as possible, fighting for warmth.  She felt like death.  Every bit of her hurt.  She was starving, but even the thought of food made her dry heave.  

She had no idea if that was good or bad.  Was it a sign of morning sickness?  Or was it a sign that she was pushing her body to its limits?  She didn’t know.  But she was afraid.

Peggy had been in some awful, bleak situations in her life.  More than she could count.  But she wasn’t sure she’d ever been quite this scared.  She was terrified for the child she carried, for Steve, for Sharon, for everyone who had been part of the Rebellion.

Had Imperial forces rounded everyone up?  The thought was terrifying.  With no Resistance, what hope was there of ever stopping Stane and Pierce?  How many more worlds would be consumed?

Peggy pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned her head against them.  She was going to find a way out of this.  There was no other option.

 

* * *

 

Steve watched blankly as Alexander Pierce stumbled backward, clutching his chest, blood seeping through his fingers from the bullet wound.  Steve lowered the gun, thinking that the look of accusation and betrayal on Pierce’s face should make him feel ... something.  But it didn’t.  Steve felt numb, scared.  Not for himself, but for Peggy.  

Would this be enough?  Would Stane keep his word?  Or would Steve and Peggy be executed before sunrise?

There was blood everywhere.  Pierce fell, slamming into the glass table, shattering it.  His leg twitched a final time before he went perfectly still.

Security forces rushed into the room.  The baton clipped Steve across the back of his skull and all he saw was blinding white.

 

* * *

 

Peggy scrambled to her feet as her cell door was opened.  How long had it been?  Days?  Weeks?  Steve was standing there.  She wanted to run to him, but she stayed rooted where she was, watching as an Imperial lackey removed the cuffs from his wrists and ankles.  As soon as he was free, they closed the cell door. 

He turned to Peggy and she lurched across the room to him, holding him as tightly as she could.  “What happened?” she demanded, hating the tears.  “Are you okay?”

He grasped her face in his hands and kissed her.  She pushed into the kiss, holding him close.  She finally pulled back, crying and kissed his cheeks, his jaw, before landing on his mouth again.  She broke off the kiss and looked at him.  He was wearing his military uniform.  She didn’t understand.  “What happened?”

He shook his head.  “You’re going to be okay.”  He held her tighter.  “You’re both going to be okay.”

She went cold.  “Steve, what did you do?”

He looked at her, and she could see the bleakness in his eyes.

She shook her head quickly.  “No, Steve.  No.  What did you do?”

He ran his hands up and down her back.  “They’re going to get you out of the Empire.  Sharon too.  I made a deal with Stane.”

Peggy clutched at the front of his uniform, shaking her head.  “What about you?” she demanded.

He shook his head.  “I, uh,” he laughed, but it was a strange, unhinged sound.  “I think I’m going to prison.  I don’t actually know.”

“What happened?” she demanded, softer this time.

He shook his head.  “Stark is dead,” he said bleakly.  “He’s been dead for years.  Stane gave me a chance to save you.”

“In exchange for what?” she asked, terrified of the answer.

He looked at her and then away.  He screwed his eyes shut.  “I killed Alexander Pierce.”

“At Stane’s coercion,” she said, shaking him - or trying anyway.  She couldn’t actually move him without his compliance.  “And now you’re going to prison for it?”

“It’s better this way, Peggy,” he said, grasping onto the words like they were his only tie to sanity.  “It’s better.  This way you get to be free.  You get to  _ live _ .  You and the baby.”

Peggy knew, with a leaden certainty, that both she and Steve had been used.  She had no idea if Stane would actually send her somewhere, or just dump her body down a trash chute.  Steve had handed him uncontested leadership of the Empire.

But Peggy understood that Steve took the only play he could, the only chance he had to save her, to save their baby.  If he hadn’t done it, they would all be dead.  There was no question.  At least this way maybe there was a fighting chance.

She pulled him close, kissing him again, knowing it was very likely that this was going to be the last time she ever saw him.  “I love you,” she whispered, crying.  “I’m sorry I didn’t say it more.  I love you, Steve.”

He returned the kiss, pressing her back against the wall.  She didn’t know how much time they had, but she was sure as hell going to make the most of it.  She knew Stane’s goons were probably watching, but she didn’t care.  It didn’t matter.  All that mattered was Steve, and what little time she had left with him.

Her fingers went to the fly of his trousers, releasing them and shoving the material down his hips.  He got the hint and helped her, giving her the opportunity to shimmy out of her own panties.  She touched him lightly, stroking him and he hitched her leg against his waist.  He pushed into her slowly, causing both of their breaths to catch.

She moaned his name, nipping at his jaw, catching his lips.  She tried to commit every bit of it to memory.  The feel of him, the smell of him.  Her fingernails bit into his shoulders.  

He broke off the kiss, his lips moving against her jaw, his stubble scraping along her neck as he pressed his face there, driving into her with abandon.  She held onto him tightly, gasping as she came apart in his arms.  He followed quickly.

As soon as he recovered, he was kissing her again, sloppy, longing kisses.  She was crying, sobbing.  She heard the door and he lowered her leg to the floor, covering her and then righting his own clothes.  He turned to face the Imperial officers at the door, keeping himself between her and them.

“Captain Rogers,” a woman said, “it’s time.”

* * *

 

Peggy was given another jumpsuit, much like the one she’d first been given in an Imperial detention center.  The van was crowded with other prisoners, from all over the galaxy.  Peggy had no idea where they were going, and no faith that Stane’s promise to Steve would be honored.  

More than an hour later, the van stopped and Peggy fully expected to see the loading dock at another detention center when they opened the doors.  But instead, it was open air.  They were at the shipyard, being herded onto an enormous transport.  She looked around in wonder.  Stane was actually keeping his word?

 

**End Chapter**


	10. Chapter 10

**FOUR MONTHS LATER**

 

“Where?” Steve asked.

“Salterrae,” Sitwell said.  He was looking very smug, standing on the other side of the bars.  “In the demilitarized zone between Imperial and Federation space.”

Steve felt sick with rage.  It was worse than the awful dread of not knowing anything.  Peggy was alone, pregnant, on some god forsaken rock in the middle of nowhere.  “You sent her to a prison planet.”

“It’s not a prison planet,” Sitwell clarified.  “It’s a level five refugee staging area.  She’s only there until she can be repatriated to a non-Imperial planet willing to take her.”

“And how often does that happen?” Steve demanded bitterly.

Sitwell gave him a tight smile.  “Not often.”  He shrugged.  “But she was doing well.  At her last scan, she was fine.”

Steve rocked back and forth on his bunk.  Peggy would be nearly eight months pregnant at this point.  Stuck on some rock with hundreds of thousands of other refugees and criminals that the Empire didn’t want, unable to leave, fighting for resources.  Steve had no idea what Sitwell meant by her last ‘scan’.  It could be anything.  He had no faith that she had access to adequate resources or medical assistance.  

He looked up at Sitwell.  “That wasn’t the deal.”

“She’s alive,” Sitwell said shortly.  “ _ That _ was the agreement.”

 

* * *

 

Steve stared out the window as the car pulled up in front of the apartment.  He was surprised they brought him here.  He figured they’d taken all of his possessions, including the apartment.  

But clearly not.

One of the security forces got out of the car and walked around, opening his door.  Steve stepped outside.  He stood there for a moment, looking around.  It was summer.  All of the flowers in the flowerbeds were blooming.  The grass was green.  There were kids playing in the park across the street.

Numbly, Steve walked up the steps.  He reached in his pocket and took out his keys, opening the door.  He was surprised the key still worked.  He was pretty sure Rumlow’s crew broke down the door the night they took him in.

The inside of the apartment was a disaster.  Clearly, they’d ransacked the place after they took him in.  Furniture was overturned, documents strewn about.  There was a fine layer of dust on everything. 

“Is there anything else you need, Captain Rogers?”

Steve turned and looked at the young man, standing in the doorway.  He shook his head and the young man turned, pulling the door shut.

Steve stood in the middle of the apartment.   Everything he knew, everyone he knew and loved, was gone.  After Stane’s pardon, Steve was given a hero’s welcome - officially.  Unofficially it was a different matter.  All of his security clearances had been revoked.  He knew they were watching him closely.

He could hear the other families in the building, going about their day.  He could hear the kids in the park across the street. 

He crossed the room and sat down heavily in one of the kitchen table chairs.

  
  


* * *

 

Steve hit the bag, again and again, pouring all of his rage and sorrow into the punches.  He replayed, in his mind, the last goodbye with Peggy, the tears on her cheeks, her pleading voice.  He thought of all the plans they had, to stop the Empire.  But they hadn’t stopped anything.  All Steve had done was help Stane solidify his hold on the Empire.  

He pulled back and hit the bag as hard as he could, tearing it loose from its mount, sending it flying across the deserted gym.

He stared at the bag, breathing hard.  It was the third one tonight that he’d ruined.  Shaking his head, he removed the tapes on his hands.  He was never going to find what he was looking for in this place.  With a sigh, he hit the showers before catching the train home.

 

* * *

 

Steve had cleaned up the apartment.  It took days.  He had to get a new couch, but that’s all he’d picked up.  The bed had been ruined.  Someone cut the mattress, pillows, and bedding to shreds, looking for contraband.  Steve dragged it out to the curb so the garbage crew would take it away.

He slept on the couch.  

All of Peggy’s things were still around the apartment.  The calendar on the wall still had her doctor appointment circled.  He couldn’t bear to get rid of it.  Their two compasses still sat on the shelf in the spare room.

Steve had everything except Peggy.  And their baby.

Every bit of Steve’s life had changed.  And none of it for the better.  It was like he’d woken up from a nightmare, to find a worse nightmare.

He was still trying to piece things together.  The four months he was locked up, he’d had no access at all to any information, other than the bits Sitwell doled out to him.  As soon as he was released, he started trying to find out more.  

Bucky and Natasha were gone.  Steve had no idea where.  He had no idea if they’d gotten away, or been rounded up by security patrols.  Sam and Fury were gone too.  Steve didn’t know about the Sorrosians.  

He knew he was being watched closely, so he didn’t try to contact anyone else.  He didn’t want to put them at more risk.

Scott was around, but he’d been beat to hell.  Significant head trauma.  He was still in a rehab hospital.  No visitors allowed.  Steve tried to talk to Claire, but she just slammed the door in his face.  Even Lorraine turned and walked the other way when he saw her in the old neighborhood.  It seemed like Stane’s press about Steve being a hero to the Empire had worked.  He wondered if they all suspected him of being the one who betrayed the Resistance.

All of Steve’s old life was gone.  Technically he still had a military rank.  But he’d been pulled from active duty, appointed by Stane to some completely ceremonial role.  

He had no family, and no friends.  No one who knew him.

He wasn’t sure he’d ever been this lost in his life.

 

* * *

 

“What is this?” Steve asked, looking at the folder.

Sitwell gave him a tight smile.  “Your new wife’s dossier.  She’s - “

“ _ No _ ,” Steve said, his voice deadly cold.  He tossed the file down on the kitchen counter, shaking with rage.

Sitwell swallowed thickly, but held up a second file folder.  “There’s new information,” he said.  “About Peggy Carter.”  He looked at Steve.  “But I’m not at liberty to share it with you until you agree to the conscripted pairing.”

Steve looked at the folder Sitwell held, and then down at the folder on the counter.  It would be easy enough to wring Sitwell’s neck and take the folder.  But the fact that Sitwell had the folder at all was proof that the Empire knew exactly where Peggy was, and was keeping tabs on her.

Steve looked at the folder on the counter again.  There was a picture on top.  It wasn’t lost on Steve that his intended mate was a striking woman.  It also wasn’t lost on him that she bore more than a passing resemblance to Peggy.  Apparently Stane wasn’t content to have people keep tabs on him, apparently he wanted someone closer.

Her name was Dottie Underwood, and she was Imperial through and through.  Steve wasn’t an idiot.  He knew that there was no way she was some woman chosen at random.  She was definitely an operative.  Steve was guessing she was part of the Black Widow program.  She’d be about the right age to have been in the inaugural class.  

Steve looked up at Sitwell.  “No health check.  And no kids,” Steve said.

Sitwell opened his mouth to argue.

“Those are my terms,” Steve said tautly.  “If you don’t like it, you can take your folders back to Stane and tell him to shove them.”

Sitwell nodded.  “Very well.  I’ll let him know you agreed.”  Cautiously, he handed Steve the folder.  

Steve immediately leafed through it.  There wasn’t much.  But there was enough.  Steve looked at the grainy picture of the newborn.  His child.  Peggy and the baby were out there somewhere.

 

* * *

 

Steve was in the same room, listening to the same woman he’d listened to rattle off the Imperial marriage tenets, nearly a year and a half ago.  Except it wasn’t Peggy at his side this time.  It was Dottie.

Steve stood at attention.  Dottie had looped her arm through his, and Steve had allowed it, but that’s as far as it went.  Steve had no idea how compliant Dottie was with this.  He had no idea if she’d been forced into the agreement, the same as him, or if she signed up for it.  Truthfully, he didn’t even care.

The ceremony ended and Dottie pulled him to the table with alcohol and poured a drink for both of them.  They sat at a table.  Dottie talked constantly.  She seemed to need absolutely no encouragement to chatter away, with no end in sight.

When the ceremony was over, Steve helped Dottie with her bags and they caught a train back to the apartment.  Dottie kept trying to make conversation with him, but Steve just couldn’t do it.  Not even for the sake of getting along with someone he would have to live with.

When they got to the apartment, Dottie immediately looked around.  Steve took her bags to the master bedroom and set them down.  He’d bought a new bed, the previous week.  There was a set of sheets and a blanket stacked on the end of the bare mattress.

“Homey,” Dottie said wryly as she joined Steve in the bedroom.  She smiled at him warmly.  “I guess I know where your priorities are.”

Steve just looked at her and then turned.  He walked into the smaller bedroom and closed and locked the door behind himself.  He had a bedroll on the floor, under the window.  He’d moved the chest of drawers in the room, as well as everything else in the apartment that had belonged to Peggy.  He wasn’t sure if it was a shrine, or a mausoleum.  Truthfully, he didn’t care.  He turned off the lights and laid down on the mattress.

He heard Dottie’s soft knock.  “Steve?”

He rolled over, facing the wall, and went to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Steve knew that Dottie hated him, but he didn’t really care.  She had mostly given up on trying to play nice and was now resorting to open hostilities.  Steve had taken a job, two of them, actually.  They were both manual labor, physically grueling assignments that left little time for thinking.  He worked at least twelve hours a day, though it tended to be closer to fifteen a lot of the time.  It was fine with him.  It kept him out of the house, and when he did have to go home, he was so tired he slept until it was time to head to work again.

Dottie certainly wasn’t happy with him, but she did seem to enjoy the new lifestyle she had as his wife.  He wondered, again, where she’d come from.  The way she would sometimes look at the simple luxuries he took for granted, he suspected she’d had it pretty rough growing up.  It didn’t make him like her any better, but he did respect what she’d been through.

Steve sat down at the table, drinking his coffee.  Dottie wandered out of the master bedroom, wrapped in a robe.  Steve went back to reading the paper as he ate his toast.

Dottie poured herself a cup of coffee and took a seat at the table.  She crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair, watching him.  “We could at least try to make this work,” she said.  Her bare toes skimmed over his shin, and he felt it clear as day, even through his heavy work trousers.

Steve was lonely.  But not that lonely.  He ignored her, sipping his coffee.

She huffed.  “She’s gone, you know.  And she’s not your wife.  By law, she never was.”

He didn’t look at Dottie.

She crossed her arms over her chest.  “She’s probably dead by now, anyway, and the brat with her.  You’re free.”

Steve looked up and met Dottie’s gaze, his jaw tight.

She gave him a nasty smile and took another sip of her coffee.  “You haven’t heard about the plagues, have you?”

Steve set the paper down.

Dottie smiled again, leaning in toward him conspiratorially.  “Pestis,” she said.  “There’s an outbreak in all of the frontier worlds in Sector Three, including Salterrae.  With a ninety-five percent mortality rate, there’s virtually no way she could have survived.”

 

* * *

 

Steve banged on the door again.  

“I said go away.”

“Open up, Claire,” Steve said.  “I’m not leaving.”

The door finally opened and Claire glared up at him.  Almost immediately, her expression softened.  “Jesus, Rogers,” she said.  “You look like shit.”  She held the door open so he could enter her apartment.

Once inside, Steve turned to her.  “They stripped all my access.  I need you to pull medical records.”

She shook her head.  “I can’t do that.”

He started to speak and then stopped.  He swallowed thickly.  “ _ Please _ ,” he said.  “It’s about Peggy.”

Claire groaned, screwing her eye shut.  “Fine,” she snapped.  “But I can’t look until I’m at work, and even then, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to find.”

“Anything,” Steve said.  “Anything you can find.  I’ll owe you.”

  
  


* * *

 

Steve was sitting on the stoop of Claire’s building, waiting on her.  As she started for the stairs, she looked at him, her face tight.  His heart was pounding so hard in his chest that it hurt.  He stood up.  “Tell me.”

She shook her head.  “Not out here.  Come with me.”

Steve followed her numberly up the four flights of stairs and into her apartment.  He watched as she shut the door and put her bag down on one of the chairs.  She turned to him, arms crossed over her chest, and sighed.  “Carter, and her child, were casualties of the plague at Salterrae.”

Steve grimaced, turning away for a moment, before looking back at Claire.  “How did they verify?  Where are their remains?  I want to see them.”

Claire shook her head, her expression full of pity.  “It doesn’t work like that, Steve.  It was a Pestis outbreak.  They incinerated the planet’s surface, and then collected all of the tags.  Her tag, and the baby’s, were recovered.”

Steve shook his head.  “No.  No.  I don’t believe it.”

Cautiously, Claire approached him.  She grasped his upper arm lightly.  “I’m so sorry.”

 

* * *

 

Steve sat on the floor of his bedroom, staring at the shelf on the far wall.  Peggy’s compass, next to his own.  He knocked his head backwards, into the wall, relishing the painful shock.  

They were gone.  Peggy was gone.  The baby was gone.

All for nothing.  Nothing he’d done had helped save them.  They died from some bioengineered plague halfway around the galaxy.  

He wondered if it hurt.  He wondered if they suffered.  Had Peggy died first, or the baby?  

He tortured himself with dark thoughts.

  
  


**End Chapter**


	11. Chapter 11

**Starts at roughly the same time as the start of Chapter 10**

“Eat it,” Sharon said, pushing the bowl at Peggy.

Peggy made a face.  She had no idea what the meat was in this stew.  She truthfully didn’t want to know.  There were no domesticated animals on this god forsaken rock.  She never thought she’d see the day where she longed for the ration packs they’d eaten during the Siege of Sorros, but right now she’d do anything for one.

“You’re the one who got knocked up,” Sharon said sourly.  “It’s your own fault you’re eating for two.  Hurry up before it gets cold ... er.”

Sighing, Peggy forced herself to eat the stew.  Food was a luxury she couldn’t afford to pass up.  They were starving, all of them.  Sharon looked awful, her face gaunt, her lips always tinged with blue.  Peggy suspected she didn’t look much better, but there were no mirrors, so she didn’t have to see herself.  

Despite Sharon's abysmal bedside manner, Peggy knew her sister cared.  Sharon’s life now seemed to revolve around making sure Peggy was eating or sleeping.  It was an odd role reversal to say the least, but necessary.  Peggy had been so sick, for so long.  She knew, without Sharon’s help, she probably wouldn’t have made it this far.

Salterrae was a barely habitable rock in the middle of nowhere.  There were nearly a million refugees, from all over the galaxy, crammed into camps, barely surviving.  There was no running water, no sanitation.  The tents had seen better days and many were barely holding together.  It was bitterly cold and it seemed like there was always some frozen precipitation pissing down on them.  There were very few plants and animals native to this rock.  Mostly it was just barren land and miserable people as far as the eye could see.

Peggy and Sharon were in a part of the camp reserved for women and children, which was a welcome change.  For months, Peggy was in the general population.  More than once, she had to defend herself with lethal force.  She’d been so miserable, so alone.  But Sharon found her.  They’d both been on Salterrae for months, and never known.  Sharon had been frantically searching for Peggy since she arrived.  

Peggy had questioned Sharon about the night they were both taken in.  According to Sharon the team was able to get into the facility with minimal trouble.  But Imperial forces were waiting on them.  Trish had been the first to get hit.  Sharon hadn’t gotten a good look, but she assumed it was a kill shot.  Jessica lost her mind, taking on all of the Imperials.  Everyone else scattered.  Sharon had tried to get a message off to Sif before she was caught. She had no idea if it went through, no idea if the others from Sorros were able to get away.  She hadn’t seen Barnes or Natasha.  All in all, they knew next to nothing about who from the Resistance might have survived.

Peggy and Sharon didn’t have much, but at least they had each other, for now.  Peggy knew Stane had no care for her comfort, no reason to keep his word to Steve to allow Peggy and Sharon to live.  The fact that she and Sharon were here, together, didn’t bode well for them.  They both knew that.  But they didn’t have any other options.

Somehow, Sharon got them relocated the new section.  Peggy didn’t ask how Sharon managed that.  She didn’t want to know.  They were packed into a tent with four dozen other women and children, but at least it was warm enough to sleep at night, and they didn’t have to constantly look over their shoulders.  

They received some medical attention.  Not a lot.  If you were suffering from anything more serious than a cut or a dehydration, there wasn’t a lot that the aid workers could do.  But they tried.  Peggy wasn’t sure where they were from.  They definitely weren’t Imperial.  At least some of them were from Federation space, though they didn’t appear to be Federation military.

Peggy grunted and then hissed through her teeth, her hand going to her side.

“You okay?” Sharon asked warily.

Peggy shifted on the edge of her bedroll, angling her hips downward and lifting her torso, trying to create as much space between her hips and ribs as possible.  She rubbed her belly with her hand.  “She likes to hook her feet under my ribs and push as hard as she can,” Peggy said tightly.  She looked at Sharon.  “She’s running out of space, and she’s not happy about it.”

Sharon’s expression was a mixture of horror and fear.  In that moment, Peggy missed her mother acutely.

 

* * *

 

“They pardoned him, can you fucking believe it?”

Peggy looked at Sharon.  They were standing in line in front of the medical tent.  “Where did you hear that?”

Sharon shrugged.  “Around.”

Peggy didn’t doubt that Sharon had heard it from some of the Imperial military stationed on Salterrae.  Sharon was good at making friends, drawing them into conversation.  She was constantly plotting and scheming.  Peggy envied her dedication.  She couldn’t seem to muster any herself these days.

Leaning in close, Sharon said, “Word is that Stane made a big show of pardoning him.  Called him a Hero of the Empire.  Lauded him for sniffing out the traitor, Alexander Pierce, and stopping him before he could further harm the Empire.”

Peggy looked up as the line moved and then turned to Sharon.  Her heart was beating so fast.  Steve was alive. “They released him?”   

“There’s more,” Sharon said quietly.  “Apparently they blamed you as well.  You were in league with Pierce.  Word is that Steve turned on you too.”  

Peggy frowned at Sharon.  “You know that’s not true.”

Sharon sighed, obviously hating the idea of being charitable to Steve.  “Yeah, I know.  For all his faults, it was pretty obvious he was gone on you.”

Peggy rubbed her stomach absently.  

“Next!”

Peggy followed the woman into the next room.  Not that it was a room.  The medical station was a big canvas tent, separated by canvas dividers.  There was a cot and Peggy took a seat on it, waiting as Dr. Cho gathered her supplies.  Cho scanned the metal tag  clamped around Peggy’s wrist.  All of Salterrae’s occupants were tagged.

There was a man, a security officer, standing in the corner of the room as usual.  He looked new - new to Salterrae that was - he definitely wasn’t a young man.  Peggy wondered who he pissed off to get this posting.  He looked old enough that he probably should have had sufficient rank to avoid it.  Oh well.  Life choices.  She knew all about that.

“Carter,” Cho said, dictating the medical notes.

“ _ Rogers _ ,” Peggy corrected.

Cho gave her a warning look.  “The tag says Carter,” she said with a frown.  “We’ve been through this before, Peggy.  I’m not fighting with you today.”

Peggy frowned.  She answered Cho’s various questions about how she felt - awful, starving, cold.  But since all of those seemed to be par for the course when living on Salterrae, it wasn’t cause for concern.

Peggy laid back on the cot as Cho took some measurements and felt around on her belly.  She helped Peggy sit up and then frowned at her.  “She’s big.”

“Oh, don’t say it,” Peggy groaned.  “I was hoping she wouldn’t take after her father.”

“Speaking of,” Cho said.  “A medical history on him would be useful, if you know who he is.”

Peggy glowered at Cho, fairly certain the doctor was just busting her chops.  “Of course I know who he is,” she said darkly.

Cho arched an eyebrow, obviously waiting.

Peggy swallowed thickly, surprised at how difficult she was now finding it to speak.  “Steve Rogers,” she said, hating how hoarse her voice sounded.  

Cho gave her a look, though Peggy had no idea if the doctor suspected he was  _ that _ Steve Rogers.  Peggy gave her as much of a medical history as she knew, skipping over the parts about project rebirth.

When Peggy finished speaking, Cho looked at her.  “And he’s not here with you?”

Peggy shook her head.  “No.  He’s on the Imperial homeworld as far as I know.”

 

* * *

  
  


Peggy stared down into her daughter’s squinchy little face.  “Hello, my darling,” she said softly.  The baby blinked back at her, not making a sound, just looking around.

Sharon pressed a hard kiss to Peggy’s forehead, and then hugged them both tightly.  

“Did you decide what you’re going to name her?” Sharon asked.

Peggy took a deep breath.  “Hope.”

Peggy expected some smartass remark from Sharon, but Sharon just nodded.  She gave Peggy’s arm a squeeze.  “I’ll be back.”

Outside, the storm was howling, the canvas tent shook with the force of it, and the lamplight flickered.  Everyone had hoped the storm would let us, but so far it hadn’t.  It had been raging for days.

The baby was born just before dawn.  The women assured Peggy it was an easy labor, which really just made her want to punch all of them in the face as hard as she could.  Labor had lasted nearly an entire day.  But her baby girl had been born healthy, in spite of everything.  She had ten fingers, and ten toes, an incredible set of lungs, and a healthy appetite.  She had the tiniest tuft of dark hair and her eyes were a strange bluey gray color that somehow managed to be no color at all.

Cho had stopped by earlier to check on them.  “She looks like you,” she’d told Peggy.

Peggy couldn’t see it, though she didn’t think Hope looked like Steve earlier.  She looked like a little old man.  An angry little old man.

The tent opened and Peggy looked up, expecting to see Sharon.  But it was one of the aides from the medical tent, along with a security officer.  Many of the women in the tent shifted nervously, but the medical aide spoke to them softly.  The aide moved to Peggy’s side, crouching next to her bedroll.  She looked up at the security officer, the older man Peggy had seen several times, and motioned for him to crouch as well.  With a groan, he lowered himself to the ground, his lips pursed into a tight line, in an expression that would have stopped Peggy in her tracks if she wasn’t already laying down.

“He wanted to see you,” the aide said, in broken Basic.

Peggy nodded, narrowing her eyes at the man.  “What’s your name?”

“Joe,” he said gruffly.

“Joe  _ what _ ?” Peggy pressed.

He took a deep breath and looked her right in the eye.  “Joseph Rogers.”

Peggy looked at the aide and smiled tightly.  “You can leave us.”  The woman looked reluctant, but finally nodded and left.  Peggy looked back at the man.  “You’re Steve’s father.”

He nodded.

“He told me you were dead.”

“I am dead,” he replied tightly.  “I’ve been dead for thirty years.”  He took a deep breath and shook his head.  “Is she really my son’s daughter?”

“I swear to God,” Peggy snapped, nearly growling.  “If one more person questions her paternity, I’m going to start stabbing people.   _ Yes _ she’s Steve’s.  We were married.”

Joseph’s expression was tight.  “What went wrong?”

“ _ Nothing _ ,” Peggy said flatly.  “Other than that Obadiah Stane needed Steve’s cooperation to get rid of Pierce, and she and I were the leverage he used to make that happen.”  She pursed her lips together and looked at him.  “What about you?  You look like shit, but that’s still pretty good for someone who’s been dead for thirty years.”

He gave her a wry smile.  “I think I can see why he likes you.  You must remind him of his mother.”

Peggy wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not, so she ignored it.  “Why are you here?” 

He met he gaze and held it.  “There are people who have been looking for you and your sister.  I volunteered to see if the rumors were true.”

“And are you convinced?”

He looked from Peggy to the baby and swallowed thickly.  “Yeah.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy pulled the threadbare jacket tighter around herself, sheltering Hope’s face.  Hope was under Peggy’s shirt, skin to skin, with only her little face sticking out.  She still spent a lot of her time sleeping, which Peggy assumed was a blessing for them both.  Peggy was mostly recovered from Hope’s birth.  And Hope was growing like a weed.

Peggy looked around.  At her side, Sharon was twitchy as hell.  She hadn’t wanted to come at all.

There was a sound and Peggy looked up as Joseph entered the tent.  His expression was tight and he immediately crossed to them, speaking quietly.  He held out an injection gun.  “Immunizations,” he said tightly.  “Hurry, there’s not a lot of time.”

“No way,” Sharon snapped, putting herself between Peggy and Joseph.

Peggy waved her off, frowning hard at her.  She turned to Joseph.  “Immunizations for what?”

He shook his head.  “Pestis,” he said shortly.  “I thought I was going to be able to get all of you offworld before it broke containment, but I can’t.  You need these, all of you.  Now.”

Peggy went cold and nodded.  She pulled her jacket back, baring her arm and allowed Joseph to give her the injection.  She then unwrapped Hope, and Joseph winced as he gave the baby the immunization in her fat little thigh.  Hope woke with a start, wailing, and Peggy bounced her and soothed her as Sharon got her immunization.

“How bad is it?” Peggy asked.

Joseph just shook his head.  “There are already thousands dead, and tens of thousands ill.  It’s going to be a nightmare.”

Peggy nodded.  Pestis was an engineered horror, a plague meant to wipe out entire sectors of space.  It spread quickly and maximized its infection vector by basically liquefying its victims from the inside out.  She knew just how rare the immunizations to the disease were, and she wondered how Joseph had managed to locate them.  She knew it couldn’t have been easy.

He gave them a long look and then reached out, cupping his hand along the back of Hope’s head.  His lips were pursed tightly together as he looked up and met Peggy’s eyes.  “I’ll get you out of here.  All of you.”

 

* * *

 

Peggy nursed the baby, to keep her quiet, as the shuttle made a rough ascent into the sky.  There were people crammed into every bit of space in the cargo hold, but none of them made a sound.  Even Sharon was perfectly silent.

It would be weeks before Peggy could even begin to process the things she’d seen.   _ If _ they managed to make it to safety.  They were in a shuttle, but there was no guarantee they would find a safe haven.  Peggy had seen a lot in her time.  She had seen war and death.  But she had never seen anything like the absolute decimation on Salterrae.  The entire rock was dead now.  And rumor was neighboring planets had been infected as well.  The entire system was nothing but a mass graveyard.

* * *

 

The shuttle was allowed to land in Federation space.  As they disembarked, they were forced through a maze of chainlink fence linked walkways and out onto what looked like an old runway.  An expanse of bare concrete.  

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of other refugees milling around.  But it didn’t look like there were any camps being set up.  Peggy couldn’t tell if that was a good thing, or a bad thing.

Peggy turned as a young man in a Federation uniform approached.  “General Carter?”

She blinked at him.  “Yes.”

“Ma’am, if you’ll come with me, please.”

* * *

 

Peggy stood in the conference room, gently bouncing her knees to soothe the baby.  Sharon stood at her side, ever watchful.  They were definitely on a Federation military base, but Peggy still had no idea what they wanted with her.  Or how they even knew who she was.

The door opened and a tall man with dark hair entered the room.  He was wearing precisely tailored civilian clothes.  “General Carter, I presume,” he said, holding out his hand.

Peggy grasped it tightly.  

“Edwin Jarvis at your service, ma’am,” he said.  “Mr. Stark has requested I meet with you and extend an invitation to join him at his estate.”

Peggy stopped bouncing.  “Mr. Stark?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mr. Jarvis said.  “Tony Stark.  Rightful heir to the Empire.  He believes you two may be of assistance to one another.”

* * *

 

Though Mr. Jarvis was kind enough not to mention that they undoubtedly smelled, the first thing he did was show them to a private suite, stocked with everything they could need.  Someone had done their research.  There were even clothes and supplies for Hope.

Peggy gave Hope a bath in the sink while Sharon took a shower.  By the time Sharon was done with her shower, Peggy had the baby fed and dressed in actual clothes.  Hope didn’t seem to know what to make of the little outfit, but she didn’t appear to like it very much.

Sharon watched Hope while Peggy showered.  Peggy honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d showered.  It had been a long, long time.  Peggy looked at herself in the mirror for the first time in at least half a year.  She was deathly pale, her face gaunt.  She’d taken a pair of scissors to her hair and hacked it off ruthlessly short a few months ago.  It looked terrible.  She was going to have to do something about it eventually.

When Peggy left her room, dressed in new clothes, she found Sharon in the suite’s living room with Joseph.  Joseph was holding the baby, playing with her.  It was obvious he was quite taken with her.  Hope didn’t seem to know what to think about him.  She liked pulling on his beard.

Sharon handed Peggy a cup of coffee, which she savored.  She wrapped her hand around the mug, watching Joseph with his granddaughter.  Knowing who he was, she could see the resemblance to Steve.  They were of a similar height, and their facial expressions and movements were similar.  They sounded a lot alike.  But Steve must have favored his mother in looks.  Joseph’s eyes were dark, and his hair, though mostly gray now, had obviously been dark as well.  He didn’t have Steve’s impressive bone structure, though most people didn’t, in general.

Peggy wondered what happened with Joseph, how he ended up in Federation space while Steve and his mother had barely managed to survive in the heart of the Empire.

When Peggy and Sharon had finished their coffees, Joseph turned to them.  “Are you ready to meet Stark?”

Peggy nodded.  “Lead on.”

 

**END CHAPTER**


	12. Chapter 12

Peggy cuddled the sleeping baby closer.  Hope was growing and changing so much.  She still didn’t really have any hair, but her eyes were settling into a light brown shade.  She babbled all the time, and she definitely had a defined personality.  She and Sharon seemed to share a particularly strong kinship, both of them disliking most things.  Hope was taking more and more interest in her environment and could sit up by herself.  Peggy knew it wouldn’t be too much longer before she started trying to crawl.  She wondered where her tiny little baby had gone.

With a sigh, Peggy turned her head, looking at the file folder, strewn across the other side of the bed, frowning.  She’d known, from Natasha’s face, when she handed it to Peggy, that it wasn’t good.  She’d been terrified for Steve.  Afraid that he was dead.  That the rumors of his pardon had been a lie, and that he’d been tortured, or worse.

Somehow she’d never even thought to imagine this.

Steve remarried.   _ Months _ ago.  Maybe even while Peggy was giving birth to his child, without any type of medical assistance, in a drafty tent, in the middle of a refugee camp.

The logic part of her mind told her that there was probably a reason for this.  Steve probably had an excuse.  And objectively, she knew that she was deeply relieved and happy that he was still breathing.

But the rest of her just wanted to shoot him.  More than once.  At close range.  He hadn’t even waited for the proverbial body to get cold.  He just moved on.

Meanwhile, Peggy was on that god forsaken rock, watching nearly the entire population die in horrific ways, barely managing to keep herself and their daughter alive.

Peggy knew that Natasha - and therefore Barnes as well - didn’t know anymore than the file contained, otherwise she would have told her.  They were as in the dark about the why as Peggy was.  She suspected they’d told her now, to give her time to acclimate to the idea.  They probably didn’t want her to find out when she was face to face with him, and then shoot him on sight - despite how tempting that idea was.

Looking down at the baby again, Peggy whispered, “I promise you, my darling, that when I find your father, I will let him try to explain.   But he better have a hell of an excuse, and he better talk fast.”

 

* * *

 

Tony Stark was, indeed, alive, and aiming to reclaim his Empire.  Peggy wasn’t sure what she had expected from the Emperor’s son.  Tony was a charismatic, brilliant, and deeply damaged man.  Peggy had no idea if it was the accident that had wounded him so profoundly, or if it was something more fundamental in his makeup.

The story Steve had shared with her so many months ago had been true.  Tony was badly injured in an accident, years earlier, probably shortly before Howard Stark’s death.  He was taken prisoner, and then stuck on the wrong side of an Imperial invasion.  He’d come out of the experience profoundly changed.  

In the years that he had been missing, Tony had forged many alliances, the most beneficial of which to Peggy was his alliance with Timothy ‘Dum Dum’ Dugan.  Dugan fled to the Federation, along with several other of the Howling Commandos, after the Empire took Sorros.  Peggy and Dugan had fought side by side for years and he vouched for her unequivocally.  

Peggy gathered that Tony’s partner, Pepper, had been from the planet where he landed, though she didn’t have any more details than that.  They were very private and Peggy didn’t pry.  Mostly because she didn’t want anyone to return the favor and pry into her trainwreck of a private life.  She still hadn’t been able to find out any more about Steve, other than that he still retained a military rank.  But as far as anybody seemed to know, he was living a civilian life - with his new wife,  _ in Peggy’s apartment _ .

It had taken Tony years to create alliances and amass the resources, both outside the Empire and within it, to architect a return.  But with Pierce now gone and Stane looking to solidify his chokehold on the Empire, Tony knew the time was now.   He had significant backing from the Federation, as well as a private fortune, and contacts with what remained of the Resistance inside the Empire.

With Tony’s contacts, it hadn’t taken Peggy long to locate Natasha and the other Sorrosians, and offer them safe harbor.  They managed to flee the Empire in the wake of Stane’s raid.  There had been hard losses, but Natasha, Barnes, and the others - along with Sam, and Fury, all managed to make it out.  Nearly all of the survivors signed up with Stark.  

Peggy Carter and Tony Stark worked together exceptionally well despite their differences.  They were both self-sufficient, smart, and dedicated to the cause.  What Tony occasionally lacked in empathy, Peggy made up for.  And where Peggy’s access to Imperial knowledge and resources was non-existent, Tony had it in spades.  They respected one another and each did their best not to step on the other’s toes.  Peggy filled a necessary gap in Tony’s close circle and it quickly became apparent that she would be integral in his plan to retake the Empire.

The plan was already well underway when Peggy and Sharon joined the cause.  Peggy was able to shed light on what had happened between Stane and Pierce, adding significantly to Tony’s intel.  Up until that point, it had been anyone’s guess how and what had happened between the two Imperial leaders.  Peggy kept to the bare facts of what had happened, omitting as much about her personal experience as possible.

Dugan caught her after the meeting, pulling her into a tight hug before she even realized what was happening.  Eventually she pulled back, giving him a soft smile.

“You okay?” he asked, his brow pinched with worry.

“Much better now,” she said wryly.  “Turns out not being stuck in a refugee camp on some barely habitable rock does wonders for one.”

He frowned.  “So, you have a daughter.”

Peggy smiled.  “Yes.”

Dugan’s frown deepened.  “I’ve heard how they do things in Imperial space.  Are you really okay?”

Peggy appreciated his concern and felt compelled to give him a more honest answer than she probably would have given anyone else.  “She was unintended, but not unwanted.”

Seeming to realize that was all the answer he was going to get, Dugan nodded.  Then he hugged her tightly again.

 

* * *

  
  


**SIX WEEKS LATER**

 

“Carter?”

Peggy turned and looked at Natasha, standing in the doorway of her quarters.  “I’m almost done.”

Natasha nodded and turned away, heading back down the corridor.  Peggy couldn’t believe how much things had changed in the last three months.  

At the moment, they were all holed up on an abandoned Imperial base, shockingly close to the Imperial homeworld.  They’d been here for two weeks.  Meanwhile, Hope was safely out of the way, in Federation space.  The separation was killing Peggy.  She trusted that Hope would be safe with her nanny and Joseph, but it was incredibly difficult to be so far away from her.

Gathering up her papers, Peggy headed down the corridor to the briefing room.  Natasha, Barnes, Sif, Thor, Sharon, Stark and Rhodes were already there.

“Apologies for holding things up,” Peggy said.  She tossed the papers down onto the table.  “But I’m afraid we have a mole.”

 

* * *

 

The end of shift whistle blew and Steve removed the welding mask.  He walked to his locker and put the mask, heavy gloves and welding apron away.  Benny had asked if Steve could cover his shift tomorrow, so Steve walked into the office to double check the schedule.

He looked at the board, stopping cold when he realized what tomorrow’s date was.  It was a year since that night Rumlow broke down their door and everything fell apart.

Absently, Steve put his hand in his pocket and ran his thumb along the edge of his compass.  He’d taken to carrying it with him at all times, when he realized Dottie was routinely going through his room.

Most of his stuff she could have.  She was welcome to it.  But not this.  Never this.

Steve took a deep breath and erased Benny’s name from the schedule, writing in his own.  Benny had a family.  His kid had something at school, and Benny needed to be there.  Steve had no such obligations.

He’d spent months researching, filing requests.  He’d finally been sent the tags recovered by organizations who were cataloging the ruins of Salterrae.  Steve had Peggy’s tag, and the baby’s.  They were melted at one edge, fused together.  

Steve honestly didn’t know if that made it better or worse.  

At least he knew a little more now.  He knew he had a daughter.  There was no name on record.  All Claire had been able to find was ‘Baby Carter’.  The father was listed as ‘S. Rogers, unverified’.  There was no firm date of birth for her, just a range, not long before the Pestis outbreak began.  

Right now, she would have been around five months old.  Steve had no idea what a five month old baby looked like.  He refused to do any research, mostly because that was too morbid, even for him.  He did wonder what she would have been like.  Stubborn.  He felt like that was a given.  She probably would have had a temper too.

But, instead, Baby Carter was none of those things.  She was gone.  Like she never existed at all.

 

* * *

 

Peggy sat alone at the conference table.  Tony paced back and forth in front of the window.  He had reluctantly set a trap, at Peggy’s insistence.  All they could do now was wait.  The entire invasion plan was on hold.

“Sir?” came Pepper’s voice from the intercom.  Peggy knew the formality was for her benefit, but she understood the importance of compartmentalization and did not begrudge them that.

Tony stopped pacing.  “Yes.”

“We intercepted the signal.  Suspect is in custody.”

“Who was it?” Tony asked tightly.

There was no response for a long moment.  “I think maybe - “

“Tell me.”

“Barton,” Pepper said soberly.  “It looks like Stane has his family.”

“Barton has a family?”

“It was news to everyone.”

Tony turned, giving Peggy a hard look.  “Seems you were right, Carter,” he said, with more than a little bitterness.  “I wonder how long ago they turned him.”

“Tony it wasn’t your fault - “

Tony glared at her.  He leaned over and pushed the button on the intercom again.  “Pepper, get everyone back in here, we need to move.”

There was a secondary plan, that only Peggy, Fury and Tony had known about.  Implementing it took some time, but they had a clear direction and timeline.

“We need to finalize the strike team for the Ministry of Justice,” Peggy said.  “I think Fury should lead - “

“It’s mine,” Tony said shortly.

She looked at him, fully understanding his very personal grudge against Obadiah Stane.  She had one herself.  “I want in too,” she said.

Tony nodded.  He looked around the room impatiently.  “Is that it?”

There were nods and murmurs of assent.  

“Then let’s move.”

 

* * *

 

Steve knew something was up.  Trains weren’t running and he’d seen security troops moving en masse on some of the larger thoroughfares.  He kept his head down and walked the entire way from his second shift job, back to the apartment.  It took an hour longer than usual.

Even when the trains quit running, the neighborhood was always quiet. Nothing ever happened here.  But as Steve started down the sidewalk to the apartment, he could see the lights flashing.  He picked up the pace.  As he got closer, he could see they were in front of the apartment building.

There was a guy outside, but he wasn’t in an Imperial uniform.  Steve didn’t have any idea who this guy was, or why he was here.  The guy tried to stop him, but Steve brushed past him, and bounded up the stairs into the building.  The door to the apartment was thrown open and he could hear yelling.

He stepped inside the apartment and there were at least a half dozen guys in uniforms Steve didn’t recognize.  They had Dottie face first against the wall, one of her arms twisted up behind her back.  Steve didn’t give a shit about Dottie, but he was not doing this.  

Not again.  

Men in uniform did not get to bust into his house and hurt his wife.

 

* * *

 

Peggy reached out and set a gentle hand on Tony’s shoulder.  He was shaking.  Peggy had only seen the very end of his fight with Stane, but she heard enough of it to know just how much vitriol and abuse Stane leveled at Tony.

She stared at Stane’s body, sprawled across the polished concrete floor.

“We have the Ministries of Justice and War locked down,” Natasha said over the comm. 

Tony nodded, his body heaving with the force of his breath.  “Get me a camera crew,” he said over the comm.  “I need to make a public announcement.”

Peggy wasn’t sure what Tony was going to say, and she doubted he knew either.  She knew there was no use in trying to caution him to be careful with his words.  He would say what he felt, for better or for worse.

“Peg,” Sharon said over a private comm channel.

Peggy turned away from Tony.  “Yeah?”

“We need you in Imperial lockup, now.”

“I can’t,” Peggy said.  “Tony - “

“It’s Steve.”

“On my way.”

 

* * *

 

Sharon was glowering when Peggy pushed through the doors in the control room, buried deep within the Ministry of Justice.  Peggy immediately looked up at the monitors which showed camera feeds from the various cells on the floor.  “It took a dozen guys and a shocking amount of elephant tranquilizers to bring him down.”

Peggy gaped at Sharon.  “Bring him down for what?”

“Jones’ crew went over there, like you asked.  But Steve wasn’t there and his new wife started kicking their asses pretty soundly.  Steve apparently walked in on the middle of it and things got bad.”

“Shit,” Peggy groaned.  “Is everyone okay?”

“Steve’s fine.  Some of Jones’ crew got beat up pretty good, but no one died, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Shaking her head, Peggy stared up at the monitor with a display of the room where Steve was being held.  He was in the cell, in cuffs and he looked pissed.  She turned, heading for the door.

* * *

 

Gabe Jones was going to have a hell of a shiner tomorrow, and his arm was in a sling.  “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” he cautioned.

Peggy gave him a tight smile.  “I appreciate your concern, but it’s unnecessary.”

He frowned at Peggy as he pulled open the door to Steve’s cell.

Steve was on his feet, bellowing, “If you hurt her, I swear - “

“You swear what, Captain?” Peggy snapped, crossing her arms over her chest as she strode into the cell.

Steve went perfectly quiet and still, staring at her.

Sighing, Peggy stepped back out into the hallway and flipped the switch, killing the video and microphone feeds.  

“I wouldn’t do that if - “  Jones started.

“Duly noted,” Peggy said sharply, stepping into the cell again and pulling the door shut behind herself.

Steve was still staring at her.  He’d gone all pale, with bright spots of color on his cheeks and neck.  “Peggy?” he asked in a near whisper.

“Quite,” she said frowning.  “I understand you are concerned we are going to hurt your wife.  I assure you she’s fine.”  It was a lie.  Peggy didn’t have any idea where Steve’s wife was, or what her condition might be.  She didn’t care either.

Like he was in a fog, Steve started toward her, but he was cuffed to the table, so he didn’t make it far.  He stared down at the cuffs, as if realizing for the first time that they were there.

He looked so lost.  Peggy felt some of her anger abate.  Sighing, she stepped closer to him, unlocking the cuffs.  Steve immediately crowded her, completely invading her personal space, his head bent over hers.  She released the cuffs and immediately noticed how deeply the metal had bitten into his skin.  His wrists were raw, bleeding in places.  She couldn’t help herself.  She reached out, touching the abrasions gently.

She could feel Steve’s breath, puffing against her temple.  “Peggy,” he said again, so softly she could barely hear it.

She swallowed thickly.  She hadn’t thought it would be this difficult.  She pursed her lips together to keep her chin from wobbling.  “You got remarried.”  She looked up at him.

He opened his mouth to say something and then snapped it shut again.  And then before she could react, he was holding her face in his hands, kissing her so gently.  She sobbed, her hands going to his wrists.  But she didn’t pull him away.  She leaned into the kiss, angling her mouth against his.  God, she had missed him.  The feel of him, the taste of him.

She heard his swift intake of breath and he immediately wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his body, deepening the kiss.  Peggy threaded one hand through his hair, and the other was at the small of his back.  They kissed for what felt like forever, but when Peggy finally turned her head away, Steve gathered her even closer, hugging her to him.

“You’re alive,” he said in a shaky whisper.

She groaned.  Oh fuck, he had thought she was dead.  She held him tighter and then pulled back far enough to be able to look at him.  “I’m alive,” she said.  “And you’re married.”

He shook his head, frowning.  “I never loved her,” he said firmly.  “I never slept with her.  Never even kissed her.”

Peggy hated the fierce joy she felt at his words, but she couldn’t stop it.  “You’re good,” she said grudgingly, blinking back tears.  “I promised Hope I’d give you a chance to plead your case.”

He frowned.  “Hope?”

Peggy nodded, sobering.  “Your daughter.”

His eyes welled with tears.  “She’s alive too?”

“Oh, Jesus,” Peggy cursed, pulling him close again, wrapping her arms around his neck.  “Of course she’s alive, Steve.  She’s just fine.  She’s perfect.”

He held her, ducking his head, pressing it into the space between her shoulder and neck.  She could feel him shaking and any residual anger about his new marriage was gone.  He was hers.  He’d always been hers.  Even when he thought she and Hope were dead.

“It’s why we give each other compasses on Sorros,” she whispered, feeling the tears on her cheeks, “so we can always find our way back to one another.”

  
  


**END CHAPTER**


	13. Chapter 13

Steve didn’t want to do anything except hold Peggy, but it was clear that wasn’t an option.  They left the cell and Steve followed Peggy closely through the Ministry hallways.  He’d gotten bits and pieces of information after they brought him in.  A revolution.  He’d heard murmurs about Stark, but since Howard was dead, Steve had to assume that Tony Stark was back.  And, somehow, Peggy was with him.

They took an elevator up several flights and when they stepped off, Steve immediately saw Bucky and Natasha.  A cursory scan of the room, and he saw Sharon, Thor, Sif, and Sam, along with a host of other people Steve didn’t know.  But it was clear they weren’t Imperial.  They’d set up shop in the middle of the Ministry of Justice, so he knew the murmurs about a revolution was dead right. 

Bucky and Sam immediately approached him.  There were several gruff hugs.  They didn’t have time for a full rundown of what happened, but Steve knew that both Bucky and Sam had made it offworld the night of the raid.  They made a clean getaway, while Steve and Peggy were Stane’s prisoners.   Bucky gave him a quick recap of Tony Stark’s return.  Mere moments later, Stark made an announcement, broadcast on all Imperial channels.

Stark made it clear that Stane was gone and Stark reclaiming his rights to the Empire.  Steve knew that regardless of how valid Stark’s claim to power was, the transition was not going to be bloodless.  But Steve had the impression that Stark was committed, no matter the cost.  Stark vowed to right the wrongs Stane had perpetrated in his family’s name.

Steve crossed the room to where Peggy was standing.  

“They’ve brought in four dozen key Imperial officials,” she said, showing him the printout of names.  “Tony has several who are still loyal to him, and to his father’s legacy.  The rest will be indefinite guests of the Ministry.”

“It’s going to be a hell of a housecleaning,” Steve said darkly.

“Quite,” Peggy agreed, arching an eyebrow.

 

* * *

 

It was well after midnight when Peggy and Steve finally left Stark’s war room.  There was still frantic activity, and Peggy knew things would continue at that pace for the foreseeable future.  She couldn’t put her life with Steve on hold, waiting for a break in the action.  They had to make time, regardless.

There were official sleeping quarters inside the Ministry of Justice.  They were a level above where Tony had set up his headquarters.  Peggy and Steve found an unoccupied room.  

When Peggy finally closed the door, it was shockingly quiet.  She looked at Steve for a long moment, unable to believe he was actually here.  He looked terrible.  Far too thin, with dark shadows beneath his eyes.  He hadn’t been eating or sleeping properly.  Peggy was struck by how alone he must have been all these long months, believing everyone he cared about was gone.  

She noticed he was holding the bag of his personal effects, the things that had been taken when Jones’ crew brought him in.  Peggy motioned to it.  “What’s in there?”

He looked at the bag, as if just noticing he was holding it.  He shook his head and walked over to the bed, shaking the contents out.

Peggy frowned as she looked.  Her compass, and his.  There were two small, twisted pieces of metal.  She picked them up and looked at them.  She realized what they were.  Her tag, and Hope’s, from Salterrae.  They’d obviously been burned, twisted by intense heat.  

Turning, she looked at Steve, who was watching her with a guarded expression.  “How did you get these?” she asked.  When he didn’t answer, she looked at the tags, sitting in the palm of her hand.  “ _ Why _ do you have these?”

He shrugged, his voice thick when he said, “I thought that it was all I had left of you two.”

“ _ Steve _ .”  Quickly, she pressed up on tiptoe, kissing him gently.

When she pulled back, he looked at her, his brow furrowed.  “Do you have a picture of her?  Hope.”

Peggy smiled.  “Of course.  It’s about a month out of date though.”

“Anything,” he said.

She took the photograph out of her pocket and showed him.  It was a picture of Hope, sitting on the floor of the room she and Peggy shared at Stark’s estate.  She was sitting up, unassisted, waving her hands and laughing.  People told Peggy that Hope resembled her, with her little heart shaped face, a tuft of dark hair, and dark eyes.

Steve pursed his lips together and his eyes were suspiciously shiny as he studied the picture.  He looked at Peggy.  “She’s okay?” he asked, his voice hoarse.  “She’s safe?  Healthy?”

Peggy nodded.  “She’s perfect.”

His brow furrowed again.  “Where is she?”

“In Federation space,” she said.  “With allies of Stark.”  She paused.  “And with family.”

Steve frowned.  “Family?”

Peggy nodded and pursed her lips together, looking at him.  “She’s with ... your father.”

Steve’s head snapped back and he blinked at her.  “My father?”

She nodded.  “It’s a long story, but he’s been good to both of us.  He’s how we made it off Salterrae.  He loves Hope so much.”

Shaking his head, Steve sat down on the bed.  He patted the mattress next to him.  “Let’s run through everything from the top, okay?”

* * *

 

Peggy woke in the wee hours of the morning.  Steve was deeply asleep, with his arm was still banded tightly around her.  The only illumination in the room came from a small clock.  In the dim light, she could just make out his facial features.  

He looked so tired.  Hopefully a good night’s sleep would do him wonders.  She understood his exhaustion.  It was born of a bone deep relief.  Like he’d finally been able to breathe, to relax, for the first time in months.

She told him everything, about her time on Salterrae with Sharon.  About meeting Joseph.  She told him about Dugan, and how she’d been introduced to Tony Stark.  Steve had listened to it all intently, taking in every word.  She still didn’t have any idea what he really thought about the fact that Joseph was alive.  She suspected he didn’t know what he felt.  Not yet.  It would take time.  Steve spent his whole life believing his father was dead.

For now, it was clear that Steve’s focus was on Peggy and Hope. His family.  She knew he’d missed her, but the way he’d touched her told her, better than words, just how happy he was to have her back.  She missed him too.  So desperately.  In ways she’d never admitted, even to herself.

As he slept, she touched his jaw lightly.  He turned toward her, holding her tighter, murmuring her name.

 

* * *

 

When Peggy woke again, it was morning.  They didn’t get quite as early of a start on the day as she would have liked, since Steve had other priorities.  Not that she objected to his priorities.  

Eventually, they made it back to Tony’s headquarters.  Peggy introduced Steve and Tony, watching them assess one another.  Peggy and Steve both listened intently to the intelligence briefings.  The transition seemed to be going a lot more smoothly than anyone had dared hope.  It spoke to just how deep the mistrust of both Stane and Pierce had gone.

Peggy knew rebuilding the Empire would not be an easy task.  Tony’s first order of business was to kill any expansion projects, and pull all Imperial forces back, concentrating on securing the core worlds.  

If everything went according to plan, by the end of the year Sorros would once again be a sovereign world.  Peggy could go home.

When the briefing was over, Steve and Peggy went to the apartment, to gather Steve’s things.  They hadn’t lived there together long enough for Peggy to really think of it was a home, but she felt melancholy looking at the space.  They’d had so many plans, however briefly, for this place.

She followed Steve through the apartment.  He went directly to what Peggy had intended to be the baby’s room.  At a glance, she realized this is where he had been living.  There was a pallet on the floor, under the window.  It hurt so much to imagine him alone here, grieving.   

He was staring blindly out the window, his brow furrowed.  He frowned, turning his head and looking at her. “I want Hope here,” he said vehemently.  “With us.”

Peggy nodded.  “I’ll contact Joseph and Miriam today.  If it’s safe, they can bring her to us.  If it’s not, we’ll go to her.”

Steve nodded and pulled Peggy closer.  He kissed her.  It started innocently enough, but in short order it became much more.  It didn’t matter that it had only been a couple of hours.  This was different.  This apartment, this room.  All the plans they’d had, and the reality they were now facing.  She understood his need all too well.

She could feel, in his touches, the long months that he’d been alone, all the heartache he endured.  As miserable as Peggy had been on Salterrae, she had never feared that Steve was dead.  She’d been angry when she learned he remarried, but it was an anger born out of a drive to reclaim what was hers, not a fear that she had lost him forever.

He tugged at her clothes, and she let him undress her as he pulled her down onto his makeshift bed.  He groaned as they were both bare, his hands moving possessively over her body.  “Missed you,” he said between kisses, no doubt understating the sentiment.

Peggy held nothing back, giving him everything she had, touching him with all of the fierce love she felt for him.  He was hers, and she was his.  Forever.  He moved over her and she held onto him, loving him, encouraging him.  It didn’t matter that their marriage had started as a sham.  Their connection was real, one of the deepest partnerships she could have ever imagined.

 

* * *

 

Once back at the Ministry, Steve crossed the room to Bucky.  Peggy was making inquiries about shipping and travel routes to Federation space and he knew she wouldn’t appreciate him looking over her shoulder while she did it.

“What’s up?” Bucky said, his expression concerned.

“Did you meet him?” Steve asked.  “Joseph?”  He paused.  “My father.”

Bucky nodded soberly.  “Yeah.”  He nodded again, not seeming to know what to say.  “He got Peggy and the peanut off that rock, saved their lives.  Sharon too.”

“You believe he is who he says he is?” Steve pressed.

Bucky nodded without hesitation.  “Oh yeah.  He’s your father.”  He paused, his brow furrowing.  “He took a hell of a risk getting them out of there.  As far as I know, he’s been solid.”  He frowned.  “Is Peggy worried about him?”

Steve shook his head.  “No, nothing like that.”  He shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest.  “I just wasn’t expecting ... him.”

Bucky gave him a tight smile.  “That’s probably the theme for the last couple of days, huh?”

Steve frowned, still having no idea what to think about the fact that his long dead father was, in fact, still breathing.  And apparently looking after Steve’s family in his absence. He looked at Bucky.  “And Hope?  You’ve seen her?”

Bucky nodded.  “Yeah,” he said quietly, seeming a little ashamed that he was more familiar with Steve’s kid than Steve was himself.  “She’s, uh, a baby.”  He shrugged.  “She doesn’t look like you.  She looks like ... a baby.”

“Thanks, Buck,” Steve said wryly.

“Any time.”

 

* * *

 

Steve was in the room they’d used the previous night, showering.  He heard a noise and looked around the curtain, finding Peggy leaning against the bathroom vanity.

“I spoke to Miriam,” she said.  “They’re leaving tonight.  Fury’s with them.  Hope should be here within the week.”

Steve nodded.  “I’m glad.  I want her here.”

Peggy nodded.  “Me too.  I don’t like being away from her.”

Steve turned away, pulling the curtain closed again as he washed the soap out of his hair.  “Buck invited us to stay with him and Natasha.”

Peggy snorted.  “Is his place even habitable?”

“I have no idea,” Steve admitted.  “I doubt it.”

“I’d just as soon stay here,” she said.  “If it’s all the same to you.”

“Yeah,” he said.  “That’s fine.  I’d rather be close in case there’s any news.”

Peggy was quiet for a while, but Steve knew she was still in the bathroom.  “Tony’s killing most of the Imperial expansion projects.”

“I heard,” Steve said, running the bar of soap over his chest.

“He could use someone like you,” Peggy said quietly.  “Someone he could trust.  Someone with the heart to make sure the transition happens as smoothly as possible.”

“Pretty sure there’s a catch there,” Steve said, waiting.

He heard her sigh.  “I want to go home.  I’m sure Sorros is in ruins.  I’m not sure how much can be salvaged.  Probably not a lot.  It’s not going to be fixing so much as completely rebuilding.”

Steve turned off the water and pushed the curtain open.  He grabbed a towel and started drying off.  “But you want to go.”

She nodded.  “I do.”

He shrugged.  “Then we’ll go.  Surely I can be of use on Sorros too.”

She looked at him, lips pursed together.  “You’d leave your life here?”

He stepped out of the tub and crossed the small room to her, looking down at her.  “You’re my life,” he said.  “You and Hope.  Where you go, I go.  I’m not leaving you again.  Ever.”

 

* * *

 

As soon as the shuttle landed, Peggy was charging up the gangplank and into the passenger hold.  Steve watched as the little girl’s face lit up when she saw Peggy.  She screeched, kicking her legs and reaching out as Peggy pulled her close.

Steve’s attention was riveted on Peggy and Hope.  He watched Peggy cuddle the baby closer, murmuring to her.  She finally pulled back and looked at Steve.  “Would you like to hold your daughter?”

Steve nodded, not trusting himself to speak.  Carefully, Peggy handed Hope to him.  Hope was quiet, her eyes wide.  She looked at Peggy in alarm.

Peggy gave Hope a watery smile, cupping the side of her face.  “It’s alright, my darling.  This is your father.”  Peggy looked at Steve.  “What do you think?”

Steve nodded again.  “She’s beautiful.”

When he spoke, Hope immediately turned toward him, her eyes wide in interest, rather than fear.  Peggy smiled.  “You sound like your father,” she said.

Steve finally glanced around.  The passenger compartment was full.  There was the woman who had been holding Hope, most likely Miriam, her nanny.  A man stood next to her.  Steve was familiar enough with his own reflection that he knew the man was Joseph.  He was roughly Steve’s height, though considerably lankier.  His hair was cropped close, steely gray, shot through with white, and he had a thick beard.  But Steve knew they resembled one another.

Steve glanced back at Peggy and she was watching him.  “Let’s make those introductions later,” she said, turning toward the door.  “For now, we need some time.”

 

* * *

 

Steve stood in Stark’s headquarters, swaying lightly back and forth.  Hope was asleep against his chest, oblivious to the din of the room.  Peggy kept glancing over at them, her lips curved in a soft smile.

Natasha wandered over to him, looking him and Hope up and down.  “I guess you two have been introduced.”

Steve smiled.  “Yep.”  He looked at Natasha.  “So you and Buck are sticking together?”

She shrugged.  “Might as well.  We’re already married.”

He nodded.  He hadn’t expected Natasha to profess her love for Bucky.  Buck was equally tight lipped about what was going on between them.  But they were still together, even with ample opportunity to make their separate ways.  It was clear they had a strong connection.

Natasha’s brow furrowed.  “So you and Carter are going to Sorros?”

“That’s the plan,” Steve said,.  “What about you?”  

She nodded.  “We’ll help rebuild.  Beyond that, I don’t know.”

 

* * *

 

“Your sister still hates me.”

“Sharon hates everyone.  Except Thor.  And Hope.  Don’t take it personally.”  Peggy turned and looked at him, with Hope in her arms.  “Why?”

Steve shrugged, pulling on his boot.  “She told me I was holding Hope wrong.”

“Were you?”

“How the hell would I know?  I didn’t drop her.”

Peggy bit back a smile.  She crossed the room to him and kissed him.  As she leaned over, Hope reached out for him and he gathered her in his arms.  He was struck, again, by how trusting she was.  He was more certain, with every second that passed, that he would murder anyone who dared to hurt her in any way.

Peggy reached out and ruffled his hair affectionately.  “I knew you’d be a good dad.”

He frowned at her.

 

* * *

 

**THREE MONTHS LATER**

**SORROS**

 

Steve wiped his hands off and then leaned down to snatch Hope into his arms as she toddled toward him.  He gave her a smacking kiss on her chubby little cheek and she screeched in delight.

“How bad is it?” Peggy asked.  She looked exhausted.  They were both busy every waking moment of the day.  It had been like this for weeks, and he suspected it would be like this for months - if not years - to come.

He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.  “Carson’s crew is still working their way through the water filtration plant.  He thinks that with a few repairs they can get it functional again, but he wasn’t willing to make any promises.”

Peggy nodded.  “That’s still the best news I’ve had all day.”

Steve knew she was negotiating with the Empire to have temporary housing built as Sorros was repatriated.  There was simply too much damage done to most of the planet’s infrastructure to hope that people could return to their own homes.  At least not immediately.  Peggy’s childhood home had been leveled, the entire neighborhood was gone, lost to Imperial shelling.  There were some neighborhoods in the capital city that were mostly in one piece, but there were no basic services.  Restoring the power grid and shoring up the planet’s infrastructure was the first priority.

Steve held Hope in his arms and crossed the room to the balcony.  He, Peggy, and Hope, along with most of the first wave of returning Sorrosians, were staying in the complex of government buildings in the capital city.  They were some of the few habitable buildings with basic services, largely because they’d been used as a headquarters by the invading Imperial forces.   

Steve looked out across the ruined city.  The sun was low in the sky, but it would be hours before it was fully dark.  Sorros was very different from where Steve had grown up.  Even with all the destruction, it was still a beautiful planet, with temperate weather.  Plenty of native flora and fauna.  That alone, would make repatriation considerably easier.

“Are you done for the day?” Peggy asked.

Steve shook his head.  “No.  There’s a load of equipment that Carson’s crew needs down on the landing site.  I have to go get it and run it back up here.”

“Need help?”

Steve turned and looked at Joseph, who had just walked into the room.  Joseph and Miriam had both chosen to follow Peggy and Hope to Sorros.  It wasn’t that Steve wasn’t grateful.  He was.  From all accounts, Joseph was deeply dedicated to Hope.  But Steve still felt awkward around him.  

Steve had never known his father, never met him until the day he arrived on the Imperial homeworld with Hope.  All Steve had ever had were his mother’s stories of Joseph.  Steve had spent most of his life grieving the loss of a father he’d never known, only to find out that Joseph had been alive.  

It wasn’t that Steve was bitter.  He wasn’t.  He knew all too well just how easily he and Hope could have been in a similar situation.  

“I’m sure Steve could use help,” Peggy said gently, when Steve didn’t respond.

Steve nodded and gave them both a tight smile.  “Yeah,” he said.  “I could use help.”  

 

* * *

 

The roads around the capital city were shit.  Or non-existent.  Or sometimes, both non-existent and shit, as was the case with the road to landing site.  Joseph drove the vehicle slowly.  It was designed for these conditions, but it still meant taking it slow.

Joseph spent most of his time ferrying equipment from the equipment stockpiles at the landing site to various places around the capital city, depending on what each project needed.  Steve made a mental note to prioritize repair work on this road.  It was a nightmare.  Everything would be more efficient once it was repaired.  

“I’m sorry.”  Steve looked over at Joseph, who gave him a tight smile before turning his attention back to the road.  “I should have said it earlier,” Joseph continued.  “I’m sorry.  For not being there when you were growing up.  I, uh ...”  He cleared his throat.  “It sounds like you had it pretty tough.”

Steve had no idea what to say, so he didn’t say anything.  What if Stark hadn’t been in the midst of planning to retake the Empire when Peggy made it off Salterrae?  It could have just as easily been Steve having this same conversation with Hope.

“I never asked Peggy,” Joseph said.  He glanced over at Steve.  “What happened to Sarah?”

Steve just looked at him, at a loss.  “When?”

Joseph frowned.  “All of it,” he said.  “After I left.”

Steve opened his mouth and then closed it.  He stared out at the passing landscape, the ruined city.  “She was a fighter,” he said.  “Always made sure we had a roof over our heads, food on the table.”  He took a breath.  “But it was hard.  She went without, a lot.  To make sure I had the best she could provide.”

For several minutes, neither of them spoke. 

“How did she, uh ...” Joseph trailed off.

Steve glanced at him, and then back ahead at the path.  “She got sick,” he said.  “She always took the rotations no one else wanted.  They paid more.  The hours were better.  But when she moved to the TB ward, she caught it.  Couldn’t shake it.  It was ... quick.  A blessing.”

Steve didn’t miss that Joseph’s knuckles on the steering wheel were white.  He gave a sharp nod of his head.

Steve had no real idea what his parents’ marriage had been like.  His mother had a few dates when Steve was growing up, but she never had another relationship, so far as Steve knew.  When he’d asked her about it, she’d gotten sad and told him simply that she had loved his father very much.

“She never remarried,” Steve said.

Joseph nodded again.

“I don’t think that it was because she couldn’t find someone,” Steve said, quieter.  “It was because she didn’t want anyone else.”

Joseph cleared his throat and swiped impatiently at his eye.

Steve opened his mouth to speak, but there was a flash up ahead.  An animal broke from the brush on the side of the road, streaking across their path.  Joseph slammed on the brakes and Steve grabbed the vehicle’s rollbar, steadying himself.

Everything was still for a moment.  Steve’s heart was hammering.  He looked down and saw Joseph’s arm across his chest.  Somewhat sheepishly, Joseph withdrew his arm.  He’d instinctively thrown his arm across Steve’s chest when he slammed on the brakes, to prevent Steve from hitting the dash.

It wasn’t something one soldier did for another.  It was something a parent did for a child.

“Thanks,” Steve said.

Joseph nodded again.

Neither of them spoke again until they reached the landing strip.  They loaded all the gear without much commentary, and headed toward the water filtration plant.  Luckily that road was in better shape.

 

* * *

 

**ONE YEAR LATER**

 

“Lose anything?”

Peggy turned around to look at Steve as he walked into the house.  In his arms, he was holding Hope, who was naked as the day she was born, and covered from head to toe in mud.  

Peggy frowned.

“Mud!” Hope screeched in his arms, and then laughed maniacally.

“I found her outside,” Steve said.  “She figured out how to turn on the spigot.”

“She’s supposed to be in her room.  Sleeping,” Peggy said darkly, narrowing her eyes at the little girl.

“Yeah,” Steve said, bouncing Hope in his arms.  “It looks like she pushed the screen out of the window and climbed out.”

Peggy groaned.  

They’d finally moved out of the old administrative building and into an actual house.  It was in one of the neighborhoods that had been mostly spared by the Imperial shelling.  And Hope was already tearing the place apart.  “I’m going to take her outside and spray her off,” Steve said.

When they were back outside, Steve set Hope down and she started tearing around the small garden, screeching.  The day was warm, edging toward hot.  Or as hot as it ever got on this planet.  He turned the rainbarrel spigot on and sprayed Hope with the water.  She laughed with joy.

“You’re certainly going to have your hands full when she gets older.”

Steve turned and looked at his father, who was walking up the drive.  He nodded, frowning.  “Yeah.”  

Over the last year, Joseph had become an integral part of Steve’s family life.  He and Joseph still didn’t talk a lot.  But they spent a lot of time in each other’s company, not talking.  Steve had come to realize that they shared an inherent likeness.  He was happy that Joseph had chosen to stay on Sorros.

As soon as Hope was clean, Steve scooped her up and headed into the house, with his father following.  Peggy tossed clean clothes for Hope at Steve.  “Hurry, we’re going to be late.”

“It’s a big day,” Joseph said.

“Indeed,” Peggy agreed, “the first fully Sorrosian child born on Sorros since reconstruction began.”

Sorros was rebuilding, slowly.  Tens of thousands of Sorrosians had returned, along with a smattering of people from other parts of the galaxy who wanted to help.  It was still going to be an uphill battle for a while.  Most of the basic infrastructure had been repaired.  But things like schools and grocery markets were still desperately needed.  Steve, Peggy, and Joseph were all still neck deep in projects.

When Hope was dressed, all four of them piled into Joseph’s vehicle and he drove them several miles to the park, where the party was happening.  No one had a house big enough to accommodate the gathering, and the weather was beautiful.

When they arrived, there were already a lot of people in attendance.  As soon as they got out of the vehicle, Hope was wiggling to get down.  Steve had barely let her go and she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her toward the group of children who were already playing.  Hope was smaller than a lot of them, but Steve knew from experience that she could hold her own.

Peggy laced her fingers through Steve’s and she pulled him toward the park shelter, where most of the adults were gathering.  Steve grabbed a beer, for both him and Joseph and they stood back, watching the people.  Steve didn’t want to crowd the new parents.  He knew how overwhelming that could be.

Peggy had no such compunctions.  She just elbowed her way through the crowd and and held her hands out expectantly to Sharon until she handed the newborn over.  Sharon looked exhausted.  Thor looked incredibly pleased with himself.

As Steve stood there watching, Bucky wandered over, beer in one hand, baby in the other.  Steve arched an eyebrow at him.  “Natasha trusts you with the kid?”

Bucky shrugged.  “She was desperate enough for some alone time that she was willing to risk it.”  Bucky looked down at his son.  “We’re going to be fine.”

Steve wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince the kid, or himself.  Steve patted Bucky on the shoulder.  In the distance, Steve heard high, piercing screams.  He screwed his eyes shut.  It wasn’t Hope.  But odds were high that she was responsible for the wailing.  “I’ll be back,” he said.

Sure enough.  Hope had whacked some kid twice her age and size with a dumptruck toy.  Steve tried to admonish her, but she just smiled.  However, as soon as she realized that Steve was taking her back to where the adults were congregating, she started crying.  “Nope.  You get a timeout,” he told her.  The crying intensified.

When they got back to the shelter, Bucky’s son took one look at Hope crying and started crying as well.

Joseph just shook his head and took both of the kids.  “How about we all go for a walk.”

The traitorous children both stopped crying for Joseph.

Steve grabbed two new beers and he and Bucky sat down on a bench.  They were there for quite a while before Peggy finally joined them.

“How’s Sharon?” Steve asked.

“Exhausted,” Peggy said.  “But good.”

Steve nodded.  “I figured I’d give her a few weeks.” 

Peggy looked at him.  “For what?”

“Until I tell her she’s holding that kid the wrong way.”

Peggy laughed, but then sobered.  “Speaking of children, shouldn’t both of you have one in tow?”

Steve took a drink of his beer.  “They’re with Joseph.”

She nodded and settled against his side.  He looped his arm around her shoulders and leaned over, pressing a kiss to her temple.  She looked over at him.  “Are you wanting to leave?”

He shook his head.  “I’m exactly where I want to be.”

  
THE END


End file.
